Christmas Magic
by LiLJiLL4286
Summary: Sometimes all it takes is a little Christmas Magic to make my spirits bright.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, all! Maybe I'm caught up in the season, I don't know, but these words have been playing around in my mind and I have no choice but to write them all down and share with you all. I hope this little story with some of my favorite characters finds you all Merry and Bright! For those of you interested, I haven't given up on CBTM, I just needed some time to wake myself up again.**

 **Let's get to it**.

xxxx

"I'll see you around, then. Take care."

She sends me a small smile as the words leave her mouth, and she disappears from sight, the door behind her landing softly in its place. I'm not surprised that it doesn't slam; she never struck me as the type of girl who let her frustrations become openly visible. Some of the other ones I've dated, yes, absolutely. I'll even admit that I've been on the receiving end of things much worse than a door being slammed in my face.

It's quiet now that she's gone, my apartment void of any noise or movement other than the distant sounds coming from the city streets below. I've never minded the noise, or the quiet, but now that the night is over the reality of the situation is setting in, a once lively room now dripping in solidarity.

Single again and right before the holidays.

I shrug to myself in an attempt to move on and try to move forward, even though I move with what feels like the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Ending a relationship is never easy, no matter how many pep talks you give yourself or however long you put it off. I've always found that being honest is the best way to go, and I like to think that most break ups I've experienced ended on relatively good terms, even though it's never a position anyone wants to be in. I try to convince myself this as I plop down in my chair and turn on the television, welcome to any distraction that could bring me out of my own anxieties.

Angela was a nice girl, cute and funny, prim and proper. Perfect for anyone, really. And maybe she could have been perfect for me if the timing was right.

We hadn't been dating for too long. It wasn't serious, which I guess made for an easier split than if I had waited for after the holidays to have come and gone. I just knew that sometime after Thanksgiving, I had come home from visiting my family back in Forks, Washington and something about us just felt... _off_. I didn't get that rush in my chest, that weird feeling when you see someone and your heart just does that weird thing when you can almost feel it squeeze real tightly and then almost burst with excitement. Her kiss was warm but the magic faded sometime while I was gone, and maybe it was because I was so blinded by something else altogether. Caught so completely off guard that I didn't know up from down.

It isn't anything she did, or didn't do, for that matter. The hard part isn't admitting that I was the one who changed, the one who left on a Wednesday afternoon flight from Chicago and came back five days later with a changed heart. No, that wasn't hard at all.

The hard part was admitting _why._

I still don't understand that part.

The _why_ part.

Why, all of a sudden, I'm glued to my phone for _personal_ reasons, and not for business purposes. I'm a thirty year old business owner in the busy city of Chicago - I'm always on my phone, and if I'm not, someone else is for me. But now, I'm _that_ guy, the guy I never thought I'd be. I'm the guy who stops in the middle of the street whenever I feel the vibration of my phone in my pants pocket, the guy who tries to play it cool but will knock over two drinks, a complete pasta dinner, and someone's beloved mother to answer the ping of the phone.

I'm still trying to come to grips with being _that guy_ as I walk into my office a week later, glimpsing at the thermostat on the way in. It's definitely cold outside, not too bad for being the beginning of December. It won't be long until snowfall and wind chill factors invade my television, and maybe that won't be such a bad thing. Maybe the frigid temperatures will knock some sense back into my head and allow me to focus on what I'm supposed to focus on, instead of the one thing that I'm forbidden to focus on. The one thing that breaks all sorts of Boy Code in possibly all the universe.

Seeing that the thermostat is set at our agreed temperature, I unlock the door to my office and throw my keys on my desk, tossing my jacket onto the brown leather couch next to the window. My office is nothing spectacular, having more flaws than perfections, but man, do I love it. Full of mixtures of dark browns and rich greens, as well as a spot in the corner that leaks every spring, it is mine and it stands for everything I've worked for. Four yours of undergrad followed by another two years for my MBA, and here I am, Edward Cullen, business consultant.

I notice I'm the first and only one in this morning, and I head out of my office and into the waiting room, switching on the coffee pot for my secretary and hoping that the warm brew melts away some of the chill. I grew up in a cold, mountain town so the impending Chicago winter isn't anything new to me, in fact, I think it actually helped me transition into being so far away from home. It reminds me of snowball fights and snowboarding in my best friend's backyard, and sometimes when I step out of my high rise apartment and call for a cab, it even smells like home.

My secretary, on the other hand, is a recent Chicago transplant, originally from Florida where the winters are hot and the summer even hotter. If it was up to her, the thermostat would stay at a steaming eighty degrees, and she'd still have the space heater on that I bought for her during her first winter here. Turns out, our different viewpoints on thermostat settings was the only thing we differed on.

Thank God, because at this sudden crisis in my life, the last thing I need is an unhappy female.

While I wait for the coffee to brew, I try to stop myself from checking my phone, or sending a text. I know I'm in too deep already, so hooked on _whatever_ it is that's happening, and I know I should stop. I _have_ to stop. _We_ have to stop.

 _Morning run?_ That is what her text reads at 7:30 in the morning, and the smile that wipes across my face proves that I can't stop it if I tried.

 _Of course. Wasn't too cold, either. You?_ I respond, quickly sliding my phone back into my pocket when I hear the door chime open and my secretary, Shelly Cope, strolls inside. She's dressed in the biggest winter coat I've ever seen, with a scarf equally as thick to match. I can't help but laugh.

"Good morning to you too, Edward." She gruffs and takes the hat off her head, hanging it and the rest of her belongings on the rack beside her desk. "Tell me the coffee is ready."

I nod, "I tried having it ready and waiting on your desk for you but I guess I'm not as efficient as some of us."

Shelly Cope, my eternally temperature-challenged secretary is in her mid-sixties, the most friendly and feisty lady I've had the privilege of knowing and working with. A few years ago when I realized my business had become successful enough to warrant an extra set of hands to keep things in order, I sent out a classified ad for a secretary position. The pool was filled with qualified applicants but the minute that Shelly waltzed into my office and commented on my lunch, or lack thereof, I realized what I was looking for: someone to organize efficiently, kick ass and take names, and step into the role of a second mother that I didn't even know I was missing.

No one could ever take the place of my own mother but Shelly provides local comfort. With my mother living in Forks and me out here in Chicago, now I have someone who makes me chicken noodle soup when I'm sick, reminds me when I need a haircut, and most importantly, expertly keeps my consulting firm operational.

I don't know what I'd do without her.

She meets me at the coffee pot, taking the hot cup out of my hands to warm her own. "I've got years of practice with efficiency, darling. Comes with time." She jokingly gives me two soft slaps on my cheek, shaking her head at the sound of the ping from my phone again. _Shit._

"At it already?" Shelly points to my phone that I've already whisked back out of my pocket and I almost drop it into the coffeepot sitting between us on the table. _I'm a fucking mess_.

I hate lying to her but considering the lie I'm currently keeping, this is nothing. "Uh, yeah. Mr. Call sent me the proposals." In all honesty, Mr. Call did send me the proposals. Two days ago.

I excuse myself shortly after, itching to shut the door to my office and jump into my work to try to take my mind off of the disaster that is now my life. Shelly heads to her desk, already bristling with today's tasks. The sun is bright as it beams into the room, and I sit and revel in the warmth before turning my attention back to my phone. I have deadlines from now until the New Year, a pile of paperwork on my desk that needs to be addressed, and lunch and dinner meetings booked for the week. The inbox for my email is growing as we speak and my work phone blinks with incoming messages but my priorities are not in order, or haven't been since I came home after Thanksgiving.

How the _fuck_ did this happen?

I swear it isn't something I planned to ever happen. As I boarded the plane back home, I expected to feel the normal pangs of nostalgia as I hung out with my childhood friends, visited our old hangouts and spent time with my family. I wasn't surprised that my best friend, Emmett, had me laughing in tears at his latest shenanigans or that my Dad and I had bonded over a game of golf. I never would have thought that I'd step foot into a house that I practically grew up in and walk out of it feeling a certain way about the girl who had grown up there, too.

In my defense, I hadn't seen her in years. Emmett and I are four years older than her so once I went off to college, our schedules never really synced. My visits home were short and sweet and I spent most of my time meeting up with the guys and sneaking into whatever bar we could find. Soon enough it was her turn to head off to school, and after she graduated, her and a couple of friends spent the next few years traveling here and there while I put in the dirty work to start my firm.

So when I heard that Emmett's little sister, Bella, was back in town for good, or for at least the time being, I didn't think I would see her for more than a quick hello while I was waiting for Emmett or something.

I could not have been more wrong.

And now, here I am three weeks later, unable to think straight without thoughts and visions of my best friend's sister invading my mind.

Yes, I'm aware that I'm going straight to hell. It's a guy thing - you never fall for your best friend's sister. She's completely off limits, no matter how hot she is or how much you like her. Emmett's made it crystal clear since we were practically in diapers that his sister is not part of this game, and naturally, I agreed with him. None of my friends were allowed anywhere near my sister, Alice, especially Emmett, so I completely understood.

So as I sit here in the morning sun with my work phone ringing in my ear and my email piling, all I can think about is how shitty of a friend I am and how my heart starts to do these crazy somersaults when I see her name pop up on my phone. And at the risk of sounding juvenile, I haven't even touched her. Not a hug, not a kiss, definitely not a fuck. All of our conversations have been strictly friendly and nothing to be ashamed of. However, it's the increasing way that I look forward to every text and the way I feel while we talk that have me all sorts of fucked up. I had been casually seeing Angela for almost two months and hadn't felt a fraction of what a text message from Bella makes me feel.

That's how I know. That's how I know that whatever is happening is something completely beyond my control. I am powerless; a word from her renders me speechless and oh, hold on- she just texted me back.

Ugh, I'm so _that guy_.

 _Yes. Can't miss my morning run. Will you still run while you're here?_

Here. Oh, yes, did I mention that I'm going back home for an early Christmas vacation? I planned on going home for a few days for Christmas like I always do but I decided to extend my vacation. By two weeks. My parents are thrilled, I am still in a state of shock, and Emmett is fucking clueless as to the real reason why my sudden interest in all things Forks.

I text her back almost instantly because it seems that's what we've been doing for the past two weeks - a steady stream of texts without any fucking rules about how long you need to wait before you text someone back. Just a good old fashioned conversation between friends.

 _I plan on it. We should do it together._ So much for my plan to keep things strictly friendly between us.

 _Okay, awesome. The earlier the better. Can you do early, Cullen?_

I groan at the thought of waking up early on vacation but Bella may be the one and only thing to wake me from my love affair with sleep. One of the many things I look forward to when I go back home is the laptop turned off, my work phone disconnected, my bed and the room darkening shades that hang in my room that makes it look like it's three in the morning the whole day long.

 _How early is your early?_

 _No later than 8._

Maybe I need to rethink things **.**

 _Even on vacation?_

She responds quickly _, Even on vacation._

 _You're killin' me, Smalls._

 _You love it._

I'm a dead man.

 _xxxx_

"Is it true? You're leaving in a week?" Shelly pokes her head into my office sometime in the early afternoon, looking at me incredulously.

"Good news travels fast, I see." I motion for her to sit in the chair across from me and she makes herself comfortable.

"Shocking news is more like it. What's going on?"

I sigh and toss a pen on my desk, and it clanks a little too loudly against my empty coffee cup from the morning. I must have worked through lunch, trying to arrange for my luncheons to be conducted over the phone before we all leave for vacations. Most of my clients close for business until the New Year, which means I have to have all my documentation and other arrangements signed, sealed, delivered and waiting for when they open their doors again. Typically, this is no problem for me. I usually work my ass off until the day before Christmas Eve, hop a ridiculously crowded flight and pay through the nose for it, and come back on New Year's Day ready to rock 'n roll.

Not this year. Since I decided to go home early, all of these deadlines need to be completed in a week. I run my fingers through my hair, tugging on the ends so they stand up in every direction, a shout out to everything in my life causing me stress and to look like Jim Carrey in _Liar, Liar_ when he finds out the goddamn pen is blue.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Shelly." This is the first time that the words are coming out of my mouth, and into the ears of another person. I panic at the thought, almost as if my speaking the words puts my problem into existence. It makes it seem very real and not just thoughts in my mind.

"I can see that. You're not hiding it very well." She's trying not to laugh at my expense but she's failing to succeed.

"I can use some advice once you're done laughing at me."

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry. I'm just not used to seeing you like this."

"Seeing me like what?" I pinch the bridge of my nose with my fingers, clamping my eyes shut, hoping that if I squeeze them hard enough, I'll be transported back in time. Back to the day before Thanksgiving, before I walked into the Swan's house and saw her standing in the kitchen, perfecting the pies that she had worked so hard on.

"Edward, since you've been home, you're either late for appointments or so on edge that you arrive an hour early. You're forgetting to call your clients back, working through lunch. It's not like you." She crosses her arms over her chest. "You know, I filed the receipt for the flowers you sent Angela last week. And the apology note that went with them."

Fuck. I shrug, aiming for nonchalance.

"We just weren't right for each other. We had a great time together but that was all. No fireworks."

I know there are fireworks between people, sparks that ignite from nonexistent beginnings. I never really believed it until not too long ago, but immediately I knew. I felt it. I knew in that moment that I felt something strong, something I had never felt with a single soul in the thirty years I walked the earth. All I knew was that once I felt it, I needed it again. I needed more. Craved it.

Apparently, I would give up a friendship of twenty five years just to feel a single firework from her again.

"Ok, Romeo. Spill it."

So I do.

xxxx

 **Aiming to have this completed by New Year's, fingers crossed! I do have two little boys running around here somewhere so I can't promise a posting schedule but as always, I will try.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanksgiving Eve**

It was the night before Thanksgiving, one of the biggest party nights of the year, at least in my hometown of Forks, Washington. Everyone who still lived in the town and even the ones that were visiting for the holiday showed up to the local bars to catch up with old friends and reminisce on time passed.

It was no different for me. I was looking forward to meeting up with Emmett, my best friend since Kindergarten, at some point in the night after settling in at my parent's house. I planned on staying at my parent's house for my visit back home, which wasn't uncommon for me to do. I enjoyed spending time with my parents - after all, I was their only son and oldest child, and my younger sister, Alice, visited them far more often than I did. Nothing makes me feel more at home than sleeping in my old childhood bed and waking up to the smell of the most amazing breakfast being made downstairs in the kitchen. Sometimes I wondered if somewhere down the line I would wind up back home in Forks. The thought didn't bother me.

What bothered me, however, was the shrill of the woman's voice sitting next to me on my flight home on Thanksgiving Eve. It was a Wednesday afternoon flight, crowded because it was the start of the holiday season and everyone was trying to see their families, but I didn't think it was too much to ask for a little shut eye on the plane before the partying started.

Emmett and I grew up next door to each other, and for as long as I could remember, my family ended up over at his family's house at some point in the night to begin their Thanksgiving Eve tradition of baking all of the pies together in preparation for our feast the next day. We call it Pie Night, and we all look forward to it as much as Thanksgiving Day. Filled with people, laughter, food and drinks, it really sets the precedent high for what the next few weeks of celebrating togetherness would look like. After hours of pregaming at the Swan residence, Emmett and I and anyone else who was up for some fun always headed over to the bar to finish the party right.

Emmett and I were thirty years old but could still hang with the younger crowd. It took us much longer to recover than it used to, but damn it, we made sure to outdrink those little bitches at Kline's every fucking year. We planned on doing the same thing tonight, if I survived this plane ride first.

"Yeah, it's not bad. Crowded but there's a seat between me and the guy next to me." The woman smacked her gum loudly into her conversation, making my skin crawl and my arms reach into the headrest to switch on the TV. God Bless Jet Blue and individual televisions. Next I'd be asking the flight attendant for an alcoholic beverage, which probably wouldn't be a good idea considering the night we had planned ahead of us.

When the woman started talking about her missed period, my hand couldn't hit the button for the flight attendant fast enough.

I don't know how I survived the flight from hell, with some pretty bumpy turbulence and the loudest woman alive on the planet sitting right next to me, but somehow I did and was relieved to see my father waiting for me in his car in the terminal. Traffic wasn't too bad for a holiday weekend, and I picked up the pace a little when I saw him pop the trunk and get out of the car.

"I see you've made it in one piece," said my father as I practically threw my luggage into the trunk and slammed the passenger side door shut behind me. "Maybe not your luggage."

"Barely," I said, disgusted with the flight but eager to put it behind me. "Great to see you, Dad. Thanks for coming." We leaned in over the center console to give a brief hug before my father merged back into airport traffic.

"Great to have you home, Edward."

My dad was always the one to pick me up from the airport. It was our time to bond, our time to enjoy the calm before the storm, the storm most affectionately known as my mother and sister who meant well but sometimes scared me with how much time they devoted to every little aspect of my life. _How is work, Edward? Do you have enough work to own your own business? Are you seeing anyone?_

See, my dad was more simple, more like me. We didn't dwell, we didn't gossip, we just simply...were. We loved football, rooted for our team even if they looked like a bunch of kids playing in a PeeWee league. We golfed when the weather was decent, enjoyed a nice, cold brew after a long day. We put up with the women in our family because we loved them and because we knew better than to disagree with them. 'Just nod and go along' was the best advice my father gave me, still to this day. I smiled at the thought of my family, eager to see them now that I was on land and headed towards my comfort zone.

"What's going on at home? Girls going crazy, yet?" I reached over and turned the heat on higher in the car, my body still adjusting to the chill. My dad chuckled and kept on driving.

"Honestly, they're not too bad today. They started prepping a few days ago because you caught a later flight this year."

"Yeah, sorry about that. This one meeting I had I just couldn't postpone. I just wanted to get it over with before I came home so now I don't have to worry about anything work related until I head back." I normally try to get in as early as I can on Wednesday to avoid the flights and the traffic but there wasn't anything I could do.

"No apologies needed. It actually helped me out a bit. The girls did their food shopping over the weekend, so Alice came over this morning and her and your mother started right away. I was able to stay out of it."

"Glad I can help," I laughed, genuinely glad I was able to spare my father from being sucked into any drama from my mother and sister.

The ride to my parent's house from the airport was filled with pleasant conversation as my dad and I caught up on our lives, the winding roads and dark trees disappearing into the darkness as we made our way back home. I was pleased to find out that Dad had decided to close his office for the holiday, not reopening the doors to his Pediatric practice until the Monday after the holiday. There was some good football on this weekend and my dad and I always looked forward to watching it together. My flight wasn't leaving until late Sunday afternoon so we had plenty of time to catch the early games.

We pulled into the driveway a little before six, and I paused to take a look at the house before heading inside. Even though it is still the same simple two story house it was when I left it, the memories inside of it are big enough to fill a palace. I looked at the window in the attic and remembered opening up the ancient thing in an attempt to hide the aroma of the weed we were smoking, only to have the window get stuck in the middle of winter and wouldn't close. I still remember the look on my parent's faces when I tried to make up some asinine story to cover up the real reason why we opened the window in the first place.

Our mailbox was still a little crooked from when my dad was trying to teach Alice how to parallel park, and on the sidewalk near the garage, our handprints and the date were still molded into the cement, a reminder that no matter where we go in this life and this world, a part of us will be here always.

It's comforting.

Speaking of comfort, I glanced over the dark grass and eyed up the Swan house, happy to see Emmett's car already in the driveway. Him and his fiancé, Rose, moved about an hour away from here and they always stayed for the Thanksgiving weekend. So many of our holiday traditions involved the Swans' and since Alice, Emmett and myself didn't live as close as we used to, our families tried to cram in as much as we could before we all departed back to our normal lives. Emmett's younger sister, Bella, was home even less than all of us were so I couldn't imagine how many activities they managed to squeeze in while she was home.

I promised Emmett I would let him know when I was in town, and I told myself I'd send him a text once things calmed down over here at the Cullen house. Dad and I walked up the front steps, admiring the new landscape they had done during the summer, and the minute I stepped into my childhood house all of the stress from work and the flight were long forgotten. Every house has a familiar smell, and the smell infiltrated my nostrils and brought me back to a lifetime ago.

"Yes, it's right here in the bag. I'll carry it over to Renee's so - Carlisle? Edward?" My mom's excited squeal came from the kitchen, and I was able to put my bag on the bench in the foyer before being swallowed whole by the five foot four woman I call my mother. She was strong, I mean, she had to be when she had my sister and I as children, and in her excitement her strength multiplied like Bruce Banner.

"Edward's here. Thanksgiving can officially begin!" She said, releasing me from a hug that may have resulted in a few broken ribs."

"Of course, now that Edward's here. Did Edward buy the turkey? Nope. Did Edward spend the past few hours prepping all the food for tomorrow? No. But Edward, just by walking into a room and gracing us with his presence, has officially made Thanksgiving." I heard the familiar chime of my sister's voice and Mom stepped to the side to make room.

"Shut up," I replied, taking my sister into my side for a sisterly embrace. "I haven't even taken my jacket off and you're already giving me shit."

That's what we do, Alice and I. Besides my mom, there isn't a woman I love more than my sister. The girl I was dating, Angela, was pretty cool but she didn't hold a candle to these two ladies. It would take a miracle for me to find a girl to even come close to the love I had for them. Maybe that was why it was so easy to leave Angela at home to spend time with her family and for me to come here to be with mine.

"I think that's a personal record." My dad said, stepping in behind me and shutting the door. He hung up his jacket in the hall closet and accepted the hug my mother offered.

"Traffic bad?" Alice asked, trailing her words behind her as she walked back into the kitchen. I followed her after disposing of my own jacket, the smell of the food for tomorrow filling the air. My parents were somewhere behind us, and I knew them well enough to know that they were enjoying the moment of all four of us together again.

"Not too bad once we left the airport. Wow, this smells delicious." I said, opening up the oven to see the broccoli casserole for tomorrow's dinner almost finished.

"Out of there." Alice scolded me, hitting my hands away from the oven to avoid her masterpiece being ruined. The timer on the oven blinked to tell me there were thirty minutes before it would be finished, which gave me thirty minutes to unwind before heading next door to the Swan's to start baking the pies. I eyed the grocery bag sitting on top of the counter, and I could see the usual ingredients for pumpkin and apple pie. They were the classics, but sometimes Alice threw in a little surprise and baked something new. I walked over to the counter and went through the bag, giving my sister a questionable stare.

"Just apple and pumpkin pie this year? No surprises?" I liked surprises in the forms of dessert. Surprise parties, unexpected visits and other surprises of that nature I was not a fan of.

"No, not this year. Bella said she wanted to be the one to make us a new dessert." Alice said, washing the last of the dishes and placing the dish on the towel beside the sink. She flicked the excess water off her fingers back into the sink, taking a paper towel to her hands to finish the job. She turned around so she could see me, her back leaning against the counter in relaxation.

"Bella? Emmett's sister?" I asked casually, turning into the refrigerator to grab a water. "I thought she was gone."

"Yeah, she's home this year. Home for good, I hear. Either way, she's some type of a pastry chef so I guarantee you're in for a big surprise."

Again, for the sake of dessert, I liked surprises.

"Oh, I didn't know that. I can't even remember the last time she was home for more than a week." I have very few memories of Bella Swan, having been just older enough to where our paths rarely crossed. She was too young to hang in our crowd and when she did, she often tagged along with Emmett as her chaperone. The memories I do have of her consist of games of kickball in the small grassy area between our houses, and the usual holiday activities involving our two families. I definitely didn't remember her saying she wanted to go to culinary school, but then again, why would I remember something that my best friend's little sister would say?

"I guess she had enough traveling the world for a while." Alice said, checking on the casserole in the oven one last time.

I shrugged non committedly, not really caring one way or another that Emmett's sister was home. Her and Alice were friends, and even though they lost touch a little in college, they still managed to keep in touch throughout the years. They weren't like Emmett and I, who spoke multiple times a day in some shape or form. The only thing on my mind at that moment was going upstairs to my room, collapsing on my bed to get some down time before the night began. I regretted my later flight and wished I was able to take a flight earlier in the morning. With only thirty minutes before the casserole was done, there wasn't much time for me to take a quick snooze, but it wasn't impossible.

I flipped the light on in my old room, the window overlooking the backyard and the forestry behind it. Such a vast contrast to the view from both my apartment window and the window in my office, I wasn't surprised at the feeling of tranquility, or the sound of the trees and wind echoing throughout my ears instead of car horns and live music. I flopped down on my bed, my suitcase somewhere face down on my floor, and I reached in the darkness through half closed lids to let Emmett know I'd be over soon.

I didn't get to see his response before sleep enveloped me into its grasp, the hectic day becoming a thing of the past.

xxxx

By the time the casserole was out of the oven and cooled down to the point where my mother felt comfortable leaving it without supervision, it was 7:30 and I was making my way out of a hot shower. That definitely did the trick of ridding myself of the torture of the day. I was looking forward to the night and was damn ready to get it started. I dressed quickly, throwing on a pair of dark jeans and a gray thermal shirt and a beanie to cover my hair, I headed downstairs just as everyone else were getting on their coats. I followed suit, my jacket sliding comfortably over my body as I trailed behind them out the front door. I gave two small hops in the air in a combination of excitement and anticipation, blowing warm air into my hands. I felt the blood start to pump in my veins, my body already dancing to the beat of the invisible drum I had always danced to. It was a good thing I had found a best friend in Emmett, the one person on earth who understood me because him and I, we were exactly the same.

And I wasn't exaggerating.

Maybe that was why being friends with him was so easy.

I ran my way past my parents and Alice, all of them laughing at my immaturity. I ignored them and knocked excitedly on the Swan's door, ready to rumble. It wasn't long before the large, white door with the brass knocker opened, Emmett standing on the other side with two drinks in his hand, one obviously for him and the other one better belonging to me.

"Cullen, what the fuck, man?" Emmett roared, his breath coming out of his mouth from the cold as he opened the door for us. "About time you got here!"

"I know, I know. Late flight." We greeted each other for a hug, patting each other's backs as we backed away.

"Here," he said, handing me the drink in his other hand. "Catch up."

I obliged immediately, moving inside so the rest of my family could come in. Moments later Emmett's father, Chief Swan, slid into the room, smiling widely as he eyed all of us.

"Ah, it's the Cullen's! Renee, where are you?" He yelled over his shoulder, bringing us all in for a group hug as if he hadn't just seen my parents most likely a few hours before while getting the mail.

"In the kitchen!" I heard a voice call from a few rooms over, and I recognized the voice immediately belonging to Emmett's mother, Renee.

Our parents were getting to the point in their lives where retirement was near but not accepted. My parents and the Swan's had all worked hard for the majority of their lives, and now they found themselves spending more time together doing things they enjoyed and less time putting the hours in at work. They were definitely going to be the retirees that went on cruises for eight weeks at a time together and the tight knit closeness was something that us kids all loved.

Renee Swan made her way out of the kitchen a few minutes later while we were all catching up, eagerly hugging us all and taking our jackets so we were more comfortable. She was bubbly like my mother, and it was no surprise to anyone that they became instant friends while waiting at the Kindergarten bus stop with Emmett and I. With more similarities than differences, the two could pass for sisters.

"Come on in, we saved a place for your pies." She ushered us all further into the house and away from the door, and immediately after taking a few steps into the living room, the mouth watering smells of freshly cinnamoned apples permeated the air around us. It was a cozy smell, a smell belonging to only Thanksgiving and happy times. Instinctively, I wanted to follow the smell and see for myself if it looked just as delicious as it smelled. Instead, Emmett grabbed me by the elbow and we hung back as the rest of them headed into the kitchen to begin preparing the pies.

"Still up for a visit to Kline's?" He chugged the rest of his beer, pulling his fiancé Rose in under his arm. "Rose will be our DD for the night."

"Is that so?" I asked, remembering the last time we all went out, remembering Rose specifically crawling up the stairs towards Emmett's room at the end of the night when we proved that partying with us boys comes with a price.

"Absolutely. I learned my lesson the last time I went out with you fools."

We fist bumped above her head and her rolling eyes, laughing at her expense and loving every minute of it.

 _God, I loved being home._

"What time were you thinking about heading over there?" I asked, finishing up my first beer of the night easily. It went down smooth and hit the spot instantly.

"This won't be done until at least nine," he said, motioning with his chin towards the kitchen, "so not long after that, I would think."

"Don't you leave without me!" I turned my head at the sound of an unexpected voice coming from the kitchen, the owner most definitely female, my view blocked by my sister. The voice didn't belong to my sister, so who else was here besides -

I remembered.

"Bella, she's back?" I pointed towards the voice with my thumb, looking over at Emmett affirmatively. He nodded.

"Yeah, for good, she says. But I don't fucking know, man." He shrugged with a small smile. "You know Bella."

I didn't though, not really. Not enough for me to agree with him or not, but I chuckled anyway. I pointed towards Emmett's beer, letting him know I was finished with mine and ready for another. He swallowed and pointed his bottle towards the kitchen.

"Back porch. Blue cooler."

I nodded and excused myself, heading towards the back porch like a man on a mission. The back porch was enclosed right off of the kitchen, a small door being the only thing that separated the two. I had to go through the madness that was flour and cinnamon and pumpkins and evaporated milk to get to the prize, and I tried to do so without incident. The wine was flowing, the holiday music was cranking. It was a general mess, organized chaos if you will, but looking at everyone's faces told me that everyone was having a blast.

One face in particular caught me off guard, and it wasn't because I barely recognized her and it definitely wasn't because of the beer. I had only had one.

She had a smile on her face that could light up Rockefeller Center, and she was laughing at something Alice had said to her. She wasn't even looking at what she was making on the island in the center of their kitchen, her nail polished fingers expertly putting the finishing touches on her pie. She was sprinkled with flour on various places on her arms and face, her hair swept over her shoulder in a thick, dark braid. I don't know how long I was standing there but my mom broke me out of my trance.

"Edward, here. Put these on the table over there." I don't know if it was because I wasn't paying attention, but the huge bowl of sliced apples covered in cinnamon hit me squarely in the stomach, my breath being knocked out of my rib cage.

"No problem, Mom." I managed to squeak out, walking the bowl over to the table she directed me to. After I turned back around, my eyes found her again, but this time she was staring right at me. Obviously my mother had made it known that I was there, and I don't know if the shove from the apple bowl was intentional so I would stop gawking at the girl in front of me.

I obviously knew it was Bella, having connected the dots somewhere between coming into the kitchen and getting the wind knocked out of me. What I hadn't expected was how much she had changed since the last time I had seen her.

Time had definitely treated her well.

"Edward, you remember Bella?" This time it was Alice's voice that interrupted my inner monologue and I looked over at my sister and nodded before turning my attention back to Bella.

"Of course. Haven't seen you in a while. Years." I'm surprised I had a voice, and I was even more surprised that it came out fairly even and not squeaky and high pitched like it was sounding in my head.

"Yes, years. How've you been?"

Bella and I were never on bad terms. Things were never awkward whenever we were together and I guess I can attribute that to the proximity of our families and her brother. A thousand childhood visions of Emmett and I playing flashed in my head, and I knew that because I was so tied up in my bond with Emmett that I had completely missed what was happening around me.

Emmett's little sister grew up to be _hot._

I almost forgot she asked me something. "Oh, good. Good. Just home for the holidays."

She nodded her head in agreement, "Me, too."

"Just for the holidays?" Chief Swan interrupted from his job of peeling more apples.

Bella laughed and said, "Probably for a little longer, Dad. Don't worry."

So maybe she wasn't home for good? What did it matter to me, anyway? I was heading home to Chicago in a few days.

"Bella, that looks delicious. What are you making?" My father leaned over her shoulder to gaze at the masterpiece in front of her and it was no secret that culinary school had been very kind to her. Whatever she was making was coming along perfectly, not a speck of anything out of place, all portions of the pie gleaming with perfection. I watched her lean towards her left, allowing my father to slide comfortably next to her. Considerably closer to her than I was.

"Oh, thanks, Carlisle. It's nothing special. Just a Pumpkin Cheesecake."

I felt my mouth water in anticipation.

"Hey, that's Edward's favorite!" Alice pointed towards me. "You're going to have to try some."

Bella's gaze left the pie and went to look at me directly, a smile playing on her features again.

"I didn't know this was your favorite," my mom said.

"Well, cheesecake is my favorite. I've never had Pumpkin Cheesecake."

"Perfect," Bella said, wiping her hands on her apron. She picked up the pie to bring it over to the counter to make room for the other pies. I willed my eyes to keep from swiping down her body, and only when I felt my eyes slipping was I suddenly bounced back with an intrusive thought.

 _Wait. This is Emmett's sister. She's off limits._

Emmett had told us early on that none of his friends were allowed to hook up with Bella, and I don't think any of us took him seriously. She was four years younger and wasn't on our level. At all.

But now, somehow, we're all on level playing field. We're grown ups underneath the walls of our childhood houses, with years of life and experience to put things into perspective, to ground us into responsibility and - she's talking to me again.

"I can't believe you've never had Pumpkin Cheesecake." Alice had disappeared and now there was space to stand next to her, so I eased my way there carefully, trying to shake Emmett's youthful threat out of my mind so I could focus on her.

She made it hard to do that, though. She was very distracting with her smile and her deep dark brown eyes that matched the darkness of her hair and the sweetness in her voice. The complete opposite of the voice that irked my soul on my flight earlier today.

"Is it really that popular?" I asked, reaching into the bowl across from me and popping a piece of apple into my mouth. She laughed, hitting my hand away from the bowl before I grabbed any more.

"No eating until they're done. That's cheating." She admonished me, laughing as she reached across to get started on another pie. This one looked like Pumpkin pie. I reached over to grab the large mixing bowl, having been to many a Pie Night in my day to know how to make this one in my sleep.

"Cheating? Did Pie Night become a game that I wasn't aware of?" We worked together quickly and efficiently, neither of us having to ask what step was next. Family traditions never die.

Bella shook her head. "No, but it's still cheating. And yes, Pumpkin Cheesecake is pretty popular. Especially this time of year."

I looked at her, not following and instead of continuing to stir the ingredients, she paused and we stared at each other briefly without speaking. She cleared her throat and turned away, giving her complete attention back to her task at hand.

"You know, it's Fall. Autumn. The season of everything pumpkin."

I immediately thought of Mrs. Cope and the pumpkin scented candle that has polluted my office in the past few weeks. Well, what do you know?

"I guess you're right. But what do I know, I've never even tried a Pumpkin Cheesecake before." I smirked at her, pausing from my mixing to stare at her again. That little smile curled its way back onto the face and she shook her head at me. I watched her walk away from me and into the freezer, coming back with the pie crusts. Again, I tried not to shift my eyes from anything other than her head but they slipped and to my horror, I was pretty damn pleased with what I saw.

Eventually I remembered that what I saw belonged to my best friend's little sister.

"I'll never understand how that can happen to someone. How you can live for what, thirty years and never try a Pumpkin Cheesecake? Where is this rock you've been living under, Edward?"

"Chicago, I guess. It's a pretty big rock." Full of bakeries.

"Wow, that's pretty far from home."

"Says the girl who hasn't been home in what, four years?" Bella laughed loudly, tilting her head to the side before turning to me and pointing her finger at me.

"Hey, I've come home. Maybe not for long, but I've visited." She stopped to look around the counter, making sure she had everything before we jumped to the next step. "Can you pass me that bowl?"

I handed her the bowl, trying to ignore the feeling I got when our fingers touched as we passed the mixture between us. It was nothing. I felt that with plenty of girls before.

So now I'm not only a cheater, I'm a liar, too, because the second our fingers touched I felt hot, like the skies had just opened up and we were sitting on the equator.

I tried to ignore the heat on my skin as we poured the pumpkin mixture into the pie crusts, me holding the bowl while Bella turned the crusts to make sure it spilled into it evenly and neatly. After putting it into the oven, she set the timer on the stove and leaned against the handle, reaching for her wine and sipping it gently.

"So how did you end up in Chicago?" She asked when I came back from getting the beer from the back porch that I had originally went back there for. The one that I had completely forgotten about.

"Well, I went to school out there and ended up making a fair amount of business connections when I was doing an internship, so it just made sense to stay where I thought I'd be successful," I said, giving her an abridged version of all the sweat and tears it took to get me where I was today. She looked at me intently as I added, "There's nothing like home, though."

Bella nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I'm surprised how good it feels to be back. I thought I'd never say that." She shook her head in disbelief, bringing her eyes back up to look at me again. Her eyes were so dark, the brown almost black from the soft light in the kitchen. I could easily see myself getting lost in them.

"You didn't enjoy growing up here?" I brought my beer up to my lips to distance myself.

She shook her head quickly and responded, "No, I did. I just felt there was more out there for me to see and experience for myself and not just in a book."

"Yeah, you always did have a book around you." We laughed together and the sound filled the kitchen comfortably.

"Planning my escape."

She shifted her body a little to the right, this time unintentionally closing the distance between us by a few inches, a few inches that deemed itself monumental in whatever this was that was happening. After a few moments of silence, I cleared my throat and spoke.

"But now you're back."

Bella hesitated before repeating my own words back to me. "I'm back."

"Hey, you guys done yet? Paul just texted me and said Kline's is packed." Emmett was in the kitchen before we could stop staring at each other, not even realizing that everyone else had left at some point, leaving us alone for the past hour. Bella turned from me quickly, facing Emmett before looking over at me with a smile that could kill.

She tipped the rest of the wine back, my eyes following every move she made.

"Yeah, I was just asking Edward if he was going to have a taste of my pie anytime soon."

The way she was looking at me had me almost on the floor.

 _Something was definitely happening._

"Real soon," I respond. _Real soon._

 _xxxx_


	3. Chapter 3

Our mutual friend Paul was right. Kline's was pretty crowded but I wasn't surprised with it being the night before Thanksgiving. Bar space was limited, even if we knew more than half of the patrons there. It was great seeing everyone, all of us walking into the bar and being greeted by friends left and right moments later. I was having a great time with everyone, picking up exactly where we left off. Friendly games of pool had been going on for hours, apparently, and it wasn't long before Emmett and I wrote our names on the chalkboard to the left of the table to let everyone know that we were a team ready to play. The guys on the table now, Eric and Liam, were decent but would lose the second Emmett and I stepped up.

My dad had gotten us a pool table long before we were of legal age to play at Kline's, so by the time we were old enough to join the pool league at the bar, we were ready to play and had been for years. Those days were long gone but it was awesome to reminisce every chance we could.

I was surrounded by all my friends and it was crowded so I had to strain my neck in order for me to find her periodically throughout the night. The bar itself wasn't that big but it was spacious enough for there to be some distance between us. Distance, for the moment, stopped me from speaking to her but it didn't stop me from glancing her way every time I thought she wasn't looking. We hadn't had a chance to talk once we got into the bar and I tried to convince myself that would be a good thing.

I definitely felt something back in her kitchen when the two of us were talking, something that made me completely forget that it was Emmett's sister that I was talking to. After Emmett had come into the kitchen, we all parted ways; me to the back porch for some fresh air and another beer, Emmett to gather Rose, and Bella upstairs to quickly get ready. I took the time to try to shake it off, to convince myself that the nostalgia of being home had gotten the better of me and had painted Bella in a favorable light. I had just finished replying to a text from Angela when she emerged again and I cursed to myself, the feelings from before flooding back to me.

So here we were, at the bar separated by what felt like a million people, me watching her like I had never seen her before tonight.

"Hey, man. We're up." Emmett said, grabbing a stick from the rack and chalking up. "Time to show these Sally's how to do it."

"You know it."

I followed behind him, tossing one more glance in her direction to see if she had finished talking with the group of people on the other side of the room. She hadn't, and it bothered me, even though it shouldn't have. I really had no right to feel anything towards Bella. I had Angela back home in Chicago and even though she wasn't officially my girlfriend, it wouldn't be right of me.

So I made a vow to myself, Bella, Angela, and Emmett to take a step back.

She was just Bella, my next door neighbor.

Emmett wracked the balls as I headed over to the wall to find the perfect stick to match the mood I was in. I was ready to win, and I carried over the chalk with me back to Emmett's side. Liam bent down and gave it his best shot.

Game on.

It was a tight game. Liam continued to knock in a solid three balls before it was my turn, and I was determined to clear the table. Emmett and I were stripes, and I took my time, eyeing up the table to find my best shot. I thought of cue placement for after the shot, and after a few moments of contemplating, I bent down to the table, my stick sliding stealthily against my thumb and index finger.

All of the balls sunk in, one after another, and just as I was about to sink the winning ball, I saw her. She was not talking to that group of people anymore, instead she was standing in the pool room, her and Rose talking to each other but looking on at the game, at us.

Bella's eyes met mine and it almost broke my concentration completely. She sipped her wine graciously, her eyes locked on me as I pulled my arm back for the final time, and let it go. I held my breath, hoping with all my toes and fingers crossed that it would disappear into the pocket.

How embarrassing would it be if I were to choke in front of Bella?

I didn't like how all of a sudden that mattered to me, especially after I had just made a promise to myself to behave.

No need to be embarrassed; the final ball sunk into the pocket effortlessly, the room erupting into cheers and high fives. Emmett jumped on my back, victory flowing through my veins like blood.

"Bring up the next set of losers!" Emmett bellowed, pointing to the chalkboard with the list of names of our future opponents. Taking a swig of my beer, I caught her eye again, this time being met with an accompanying smile that she tried to hide. My heart did that weird flippy thing again, and that smile stuck with me as we destroyed the table for the next hour.

The crowd around had started to dissipate, so I wasn't disappointed when after an eight game winning streak, Emmett and I were dethroned from the table by Ben and Tyler, friends of ours from high school. We shook hands to congratulate them on their win and headed over to the bar to replenish ourselves.

"I haven't played that good in a while," Emmett said as he reached over the bar to grab his drink from the bartender, Peter. He nodded his thanks and left a bill on the bar for the tip. "Considering I don't get on a table as much as I'd like to."

I nodded, agreeing with him. "I can't even tell you the last time I played pool." The beer was refreshing after playing under the pressure of a crowd and Bella. The minute I thought of her, I wanted to turn around and scan the room to see where she disappeared to but Emmett distracted me, luckily.

"Probably the last time you were here." Emmett swallowed a gulp of his beer, putting it on the bar and turning to me. "I love it when you're home, bro."

I agree, "Me too. I wish I could get back here more often."

"What's a guy gotta do to make you stay?"

I wasn't sure if there would ever be a guy capable of making me give up my career and love of the city to move back home, but as I watched Rose and Bella come back inside from the heated patio, the thought crossed my mind that maybe there _was_ someone capable of making me change paths.

"You guys done?" Rose asked, slinking her arm around Emmett's waist.

Emmett nodded, "Yeah, figured we should share the table with the others. We'll get back on there, though."

"You guys were good," Bella chimed in. She was standing between Rose and I, the loudness of the room causing her to raise her voice a little louder for us to hear.

"Edward and I used to tear that table up every week," Emmett replied.

"Yep. Every Thursday," I joined in, thinking fondly of the Thursday's spent here at Kline's for our home games and other local bars for our away games. We got to know the other guys from the visiting teams quite well, even though we only played during breaks from school and during the summer. "Remember the guy with the glass eye?"

Emmett nodded, "Garret. Crazy motherfucker."

"Well, you'd have to be if you shot your eye out with a firework and then lit them off again the following week."

"You're serious?" Bella exclaimed, shaking her head when I turned my attention to her.

"Oh, yes. Totally serious. I made sure I had an excuse why I couldn't make it to any of his parties. He shot fireworks off any chance he got."

"Was it weird to look at?"

"Only when he took it out."

She shivered involuntarily, making me chuckle as I downed the last of my beer. I placed it on the bar in front of me and turned my body around in the swivel chair so I could see her better.

"I'm sure you met some crazy people in all your travels." She moved in closer so we could hear each other better, Rose's spot vacant as her and Emmett met up with one of Emmett's guys from work. I jumped down from my seat, motioning for her to sit in my spot so she wouldn't have to stand. She thanked me, squeezing between myself and the seat a little too close for my liking. I attempted to shake off the heat from our contact again.

"That I did, " Bella commented, "No glass eye, though."

I pointed a finger jokingly finger in her direction, "You're missing out then. You haven't lived until you've met Garrett."

"And you haven't lived until you've had Pumpkin Cheesecake."

I hold my hands up in surrender. "I guess I'll find out what life is all about tomorrow when I try some."

"I'll save you a piece."

"You promised."

"Ok, I'll put a bow on it and put it under the Christmas tree for you."

"You don't even have your tree yet."

At least I didn't think they did. I was a little distracted during my brief attendance at Pie Night by a certain brunette.

"You're right. We're all still going Saturday, right?"

Like I said earlier, since most of us kids live fairly far away from home these days, we always made sure to head on over to the tree farm and cut down a tree before we all headed back home. We all agreed that Thanksgiving was becoming second to Christmas, and having such emotional ties to Pie Night and Thanksgiving, we tried our hardest not to jump to Christmas any earlier than necessary, if only by a few days. My parents and sister and I had already made plans to go over to Kerris Tree Farm on Saturday morning.

"Pretty sure. At least my parents and sister and I are."

"Well, if the Cullens are planning something then chances are us Swans are right behind you." We laughed and clinked our shot glasses together, the bartender having slid them over sometime during the conversation. Probably a gift from Emmett that he had long forgotten about in his current state. We tilted our heads back and slammed the glasses back down onto the bar in unison. I turned back to her as I felt the warm liquid fill my insides with fire.

"Were our parents always this glued at the hip?" I asked, trying not to admire her too openly. She shook her head slightly.

"They've always been close but now they do things together all the time. Maybe it's because all us kids are grown and out of the house? Empty Nest?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe. But technically you're not out of the house anymore now that you're back."

She interrupted me, "For now. As much as I love being home I don't know how long I can share the space with my parents all the time. I guess I got used to being out on my own."

Understandable. I couldn't picture myself moving back in with my parents after being away from them so long. I love them but a guy loves his own space, too. I motioned for Peter to refill her glass and he did so quickly. I handed him my credit card and she answered her gratitude with a smile.

"You were by yourself doing all that traveling?" I asked as she took a sip of her drink. She shook her head.

"No, I went with two friends from college. Do you really think the Chief of Police would let his daughter go anywhere across country alone?"

I laughed and readjusted the hat on my head.

"Fuck no. Your dad was insanely protective of you."

She rolled her eyes. "Was? Still is. Just last week I met up with Jared and he was spying on me through the blinds."

"You're seeing Jared?" Emmett popped up out of nowhere and if I wasn't too jealous of Bella's mentioning of a guy I'd have punched him. She focused her attention over my shoulder towards her brother and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Did I say I was seeing him? We just had coffee at the new place downtown."

Emmett wobbled on his feet as he pulled me by my jacket so I was looking right at him, his face way too close to my own. Not the Swan I wanted to be this close to but there I was.

"I never liked that guy."

Now I was interested.

"Why? What did he do?" I looked back and forth between the siblings, already agreeing with Emmett in my hatred for this Jared guy.

"He did nothing," Bella said, her tone defensive. She pushed her brother away from us and turned back to me. "Do you see why I wanted to get away from this for a while?"

I nodded, "I could see how it could be tough for you, yes. But they're just watching out for you, you know." She really didn't have a chance at all with a social life with Chief Swan and Emmett around. In their defense, she was a young girl in a town where everyone knew each other. No secrets even though everyone pretended not to know what everyone's story was but it was a known fact that everyone knew everything there was to know when it came to gossip. It was one of the things I didn't miss about here.

Bella shook her head hard in disagreement. "I know that but it's okay for me to make my own decisions, whether or not they're good or bad, they're my decisions to make."

"Hey, you don't have to convince me. Do you think it was easy for me to tell my mom that I wasn't coming back home after I graduated? I'm pretty sure my mom was searching real estate in Chicago so she could be closer to me."

We laughed at the thought, each of us knowing that it wasn't far off from the truth.

"It's different for you, though. You're a guy."

Not the guy vs. girl debate. I was smart and didn't want to venture down that road. No male ever won, ever, so I still don't know why my species still continued to try.

"No girl wants to date a guy with his Mom watching his every move," I countered.

"And a guy wants to date a girl with the Chief of Police for a father and a tree like Emmett for an older brother?"

I laughed harder this time, "Emmett is a pretty big tree, I'll give you that."

Peter came over to clear the empty drinks around us, and again, I didn't even notice that most of the bar had emptied and was filled with discarded bottles and glasses. I slid him a few empties near my vicinity and turned back and saw Bella look at me funny, almost impressed.

"I know he told everyone in high school not to go near me."

Oh, yes. He absolutely did and I was so close to telling him to go to hell.

"Well, speaking as someone who went to the same high school, you wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere near us, either. We were disgusting."

She shook her head, her smile contagious, "You were not disgusting. My brother, on the other hand," she pretended to gag. "I'll never understand how he managed to put a ring on Rose."

"I was just as disgusting, I just hid it a little better."

For the first time in our conversation, we hit a stop. It was a pause, not uncomfortable in the least. I could feel the intensity of her stare, mesmorized by the way her teeth snagged her bottom lip between them.

 _What the fuck was happening?_

She leaned in one last time before Peter called last call.

"You must have hid it pretty well."

xxxx

We were all too drunk to be that squished in Rose's car. Rose was the only one comfortable due to her role as DD, and Emmett could give two shits because he was passed out, legs stretched in the front passenger seat. In the back sat Alice, me, and Bella, with Alice in the middle because she was freakishly small. It must be nice enough to squeeze into small spaces, and I elbowed her hard once I finagled myself into the sports car.

"Fuck, is this Polly Pocket's car?" I mumbled, throwing my arm back above the seats. "I can't feel my legs."

"Calm down, Olaf. You've been in the car for two minutes." Rose dismissed me from her palace in the front seat.

"I like being this close," Alice said, snuggling into Bella as the two of them giggle. "It keeps me warm."

I was definitely warm. The combination of the alcohol and the girl made me take the beanie off my head for the first time all night. I ran my fingers through it in frustration. It wasn't a far drive but it felt like forever, mainly due to my being squeezed like a pretzel and the proximity of Bella in the car. I was actually glad that she wasn't sitting right next to me because chances were with her brother passed out right in front of me, it would not have stopped me from crossing a line that I didn't even know needed to be drawn.

"Ew, you stink. Get away from me," Alice pushed me further into the corner.

"Where the fuck do you want me to go, the trunk?"

The girls giggled in response and laughed even harder when I responded, "And I don't stink."

I was the first one to unfold themselves from the car, the world swerving under me and not because of the beer, but because all my limbs had fallen asleep and pins and needles were taking over my body. Rose needed help heaving Emmett out of the car, as always, and it ended up being a three person job. Alice disappeared back home with an excuse of having to pee, so Rose, Bella and I literally dragged the oaf on the grass and tossed him on the couch. Rose wiped the imaginary dirt off of her gloved hands and turned to us in the darkened living room.

"That oughta do it. He'll find his way upstairs eventually. Goodnight, guys."

She didn't bother turning on any lights, having learned the ins and outs of the Swan house over the years. As I watched her retreating form walking - yes! Not crawling! - up the stairs, I shook my head with amusement, so grateful that somehow my best friend had landed someone like Rose to literally take care of his sorry ass.

I scratched the hair on my head, the temperature cooling down now that I had taken my hat off and I was out of that sorry excuse for a car.

"Do you need another beer or something?" Bella asked, leaning over to switch the hall light on. I turned my eyes at the intrusion, shaking my head with a polite decline.

"I'd love to but I should go," I said, pointing over towards my house. "Rough commute, you know."

She laughed.

"Let me know when you're home safe," she joked back easily, easily picking up on my quirky sense of humor.

"Will do," I said, allowing her to open the front door so I could end the night respectfully. We both may have drank too much but not enough for me to capitalize on her vulnerability, even though she somehow looked even more delicious than she had all night. Maybe it was because she was leaning against the front door with a look on her face that said she had enjoyed herself tonight, with a sly smile that made me debate if I really did need to be going back over to my parent's house next door.

Yes, yes. I did need to go. Now.

I started to walk backwards down the sidewalk, "Save me some of that - "

I was going to finish my sentence with the word pie. _Save me some of that pie._ But instead, my foot found Renee Swan's flowerpot that I swear sprouted from the ground out of nowhere, and I tripped and fell backwards, landing on my ass and elbows in the wet grass. I hopped back up as quickly as I can, trying to play it cool like it never happened and praying to all dieties known to man that she didn't see it.

Oh, but she did.

And she couldn't stop laughing.

She was leaning against the door, the sound of her laughs loud enough to wake up the whole neighborhood. She didn't even bother to ask how I was because she was crying, tears of laughter pooling in the corner of her eyes.

"I'm crying," she said, dabbing at her eyes before a new wave of laughs engulfed her. "I didn't think I'd have to warn you about my mom's flower pot that's been there since I was five."

Brushing off the dirt and grass and whatever the fuck else piece of earth that was on me, I tossed her the finger playfully.

"Shut the fuck up, Swan."

Bella just laughed even harder, shaking her head as I walked away with a majorly bruised ego and a huge smile.

Ten minutes later, after pulling more grass out of my hair, I was dragging my way into my bed when Bella Swan sent me the first text between us.

 _Best. Pie. Night. Ever._

xxxx


	4. Chapter 4

**Chicago, Present Day**

"So this is where we are now," I say, tossing my phone in frustration against the couch. "We talk all the time. About nothing. About everything."

Shelly points over at my phone, "Let me read them."

I look at her nervously but give her my phone anyway. I run my hands through my hair again, sighing loudly as I look out the window.

She scans through my phone quickly, and I show her our conversations through text and Snapchat. It takes her just a few minutes to get any additional information I may have forgotten and when she speaks to me again I agree with what she has to say. "Just looks like two people who enjoy talking to each other. A lot."

"Right." I nod, happy that she sees it the same way as I do. "Nothing to be worried about, right?"

She shakes her head, "Just by reading the content of your conversation, no, absolutely not. Your behavior, however..." she trails off when I give her a look that must resemble that of the Grinch when Cindy Lou Who catches him stealing her Christmas supply.

"Am I that obvious?" I collapse onto the couch in my office, burying my face in a pillow. "Wake me up when it's over."

I'm not the type of guy to avoid this type of thing. I like to think of myself as a guy who is open to everything, relationships included. Navigating the world of women hasn't necessarily been hard for me so this is all new territory for me. As I'm wishing for the couch to swallow me whole, Shelly interrupts my moment of misery.

"When what is over?"

I peek over at her with one eye emerging from the pillow, "This crush thing. I mean, that's why they call it a crush, right? Because it just crushes every ounce of your soul? Your will to live?"

Shelly laughs, putting my phone back on my desk in front of her. She shakes her head, "I think you're looking way too much into this. Emmett's your best friend, right?"

Since the moment I met him, Emmett has been nothing but the most perfect best friend a guy could want. Growing up, he had the best snacks and he would always be up for a trade at the lunch table. He always let me copy his homework, gave me plenty of rides wherever I wanted to go because he got his license before me, and he let me hook up with Tanya Denali at homecoming, even though he wanted her first. I know that technically I haven't done anything wrong, yet. Yet is the key term here because given the opportunity, I don't think I would be able to resist her. I sigh and shake my head. "The best."

"So, he'll get over it."

In the part of my brain that comprehends and analyzes reason, I know this. I know this because this is the kind of person that Emmett is. He forgives even if it may take him a while. It's not like we haven't forgiven each other for stupid shit before, either. But this time it's different. This is his sister we're talking about and in his mind, he'll probably assume that Bella is just another girl in my life, another girl to pass the time with before something better comes along.

Even if I don't want to admit it yet, I know that whatever this is I feel for Bella is completely different than anything I've ever felt. Ever. In my life.

I've been girl crazy for as long as I can remember, never really having any dry spells due to anything other than my own personal choice. I've been dumped before, and I've dumped others before Angela. We live in a digital world these days so of course I've done my fair share of texting and sexting girlfriends.

So I wonder if I'll always be perplexed that somehow a girl that I've known since I was five would be the one to awaken new types of feelings in me, feelings that have me overwhelmed and confused.

"Yeah, he'll get over it. Maybe after he kills me first." I sit up from my position on the couch, rubbing my face to try to regain some normalcy.

"Somehow I doubt he's going to be as upset as you think. Every time I've seen Emmett he's been nothing but pleasant. He seems pretty reasonable."

Emmett runs his own construction company, having started it from the bottom up. Naturally, he turned to me as a business consultant, knowing that analyzing risks and assessments is what I do best. Emmett visits me here in Chicago a few times a year as a client and Shelly was right. He's always been nothing but pleasant. _Stupid bastard_. "Have you considered just telling him how you feel?"

I nod and throw my arms up. "Of course. It would make things so much easier but right now I'm not even sure if there's anything to tell." I pause to stare out the window. "I don't even know if she feels the same way as I do."

Shelly leaves her chair and comes over to join me in front of the window, patting my back in an attempt to cheer me up.

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit. She's been talking to you every day for two weeks, and even as we speak, your phone keeps buzzing and everything she says just screams that she's feeling something towards you." She dangles my phone in the air in front of me, just out of reach for me to take it back. "Haven't you watched 'He's Just Not That into You?'"

"Which one is that again?"

She shakes her head in disbelief. "Forget it. Just be honest with everyone. Bella, Emmett and most importantly, yourself." She stares at me, pleading with her eyes to heed her advice. That's usually what I end up doing in the long run, anyway. She places my phone back on my desk as she walks out of the room, turning around quickly to poke her head back in. "So if you're leaving a week early does that mean I get to, as well?"

"Maybe. I'll think about it," I kid, pulling my chair back out to bang out the rest of these proposals. I really want to enjoy myself over my Christmas vacation so I am determined to finish everything before I leave, even if it means coming in early, staying here late, and working from home. With my head all sorts of loose with Bella on my mind, the last thing I need to have on my mind is Bella _and_ work. I don't know if there is room for both at the moment, especially when I've never in my life had something plaguing my mind as much as she's been since I've come home.

It all started with that text she sent the night I demolished her mom's flower pot. I still swear that it was placed there at that exact moment just to look like a complete tool. She still sends me memes periodically of some idiot falling over something just to remind me that she'll never forget and still laughs herself to tears when she thinks about it.

Anyway, her text to me just started everything for us. Us?

That's how I found out that she likes to run. That's how I found out all about where she traveled between now and when she graduated, and why she didn't look for jobs to keep her love of all things pastry alive. I learned that her words are just as enticing to read as she is to look at, and she's even sent me pictures - no, not like that - pictures of her morning run with beautiful scenery backdrops, but to be honest, there was one thing beautiful in her pictures, and it wasn't the backdrop.

If Emmett were to look at the pictures she'd sent me, he would shrug and say it was no big deal because they weren't anything that I needed to hide. And Shelly was right too; our conversations were innocent bordering on the edge of flirty. Ugh, who am I, saying words like _flirty._

I'm _that guy._

I decide to stay late like I said I would, sending Shelly home much earlier than the 9:00 I walk in the door. My apartment is empty and quiet, darkened even though the city is still very much alive twenty stories below. Tossing my bag on the couch, I make my way into the kitchen to rummage through the refrigerator to see what there is to eat. There's not much except for some leftover pizza and a beer, so I shrug my shoulders and throw the pizza in the microwave, changing into a pair of sweats while I wait for my food to be done.

I plop myself down on my leather recliner, the remote for the television in my hand when my cell phone buzzes on the coffee table. I already know who it is before I look at the screen.

 _You home?_

Just seeing her name on my screen sends both a sense of calm and nervousness down my body. I answer her back quickly.

 _Just settling in now. Worked late so I don't have to worry about anything when I'm home._

 _Good. So you'll be able to relax and have yourself a very little Christmas._

 _Very little Christmas?_

 _It's a joke between Emmett and me. I'm surprised he hasn't told you._

I guess Emmett and I don't share everything like I thought we did.

 _No. You'll have to fill me in._

 _I will when you get here. It's funnier in person. When will you be here_?

Not soon enough is what I really want to send back to her but we're not there yet. I know I am but I'm smart enough not to be that _other guy_ , the guy who dives headfirst into shallow water.

 _Late Friday night, maybe early Saturday morning if there are any delays at the airport or anything._

 _Have you started your shopping yet?_

 _Online shopping. Perfect solution._

 _You know what day it is, right?_

I pause to think before sending, _Monday?_

 _Yes but only a week before Christmas._

 _A week? Plenty of time._

 _Typical guy. Are the gifts you have at least wrapped yet?_

I laugh out loud in my lonely apartment, _Wrapped, too? Now you're asking too much._

 _So when do you plan on going shopping?_

 _Sometime over the weekend when I'm home._

 _Port Angeles?_

 _Most likely. There's this gallery that sells these paintings my mom loves so since I have to make a trip up there I might as well get it all done at the mall while I'm there._

 _I need to go to Port Angeles too so I'll just hitch a ride with you._

I smile widely, my fingers flickering quickly across the screen, _I'm sorry, did I invite you?_

 _Pretty sure I wasn't looking for an invitation._

 _So you're assuming I want you coming with me._

 _You don't want us to come together?_

My heart pretty much stops in my chest. We've made the turn. You know the turn in a relationship with someone when you know there's something brewing, that moment when you know that if you were to put yourself out there, the other person would catch you? I stare at my phone before responding, knowing that the moment I hit send will change everything.

But I want it. I want it more than I know I should, more than what I know is right.

With fingers that tremble, I take that jump, hoping she is there to catch me. I send her my response.

 _You know I do._

She is.

 _Really looking forward to that experience._

xxx

"You faxed over the Stanley file to Simon?" I'm walking frantically around my office, gathering papers while trying to throw my jacket around my shoulders. I don't succeed and I watch the papers flutter to the floor, Shelly coming in to save my life. She picks up the papers and hands them back to me.

"Yes, yesterday morning," she says.

"And the Newton file?" I'm loosening the tie that has started to strangle me. Shelly sighs loudly, moving my hands out of the way to fix my tie the correct way.

"Yup. Yesterday morning, as well."

I nod, becoming a little less anxious. "What about the Black file? They were adamant on receiving the adjustments I made before I left."

"You know, Edward, if I didn't know you any better I'd have kicked your ass by now."

I pinch the bridge of my nose, sighing loudly and counting down backwards in my head from ten. "I'm sorry, I'm just worried, that's all. I haven't taken two weeks off since...ever."

Shelly scoffs, "Believe me, I know. And yes, I took care of the Black file and spoke to Mr. Black himself. He was very pleased."

I stop my fidgeting to look at her. "Oh, great. That makes me feel a little better now."

I scan the room again, making sure everything is locked in its place, ready for my return in the New Year. I don't know how I did it, but I made sure to leave this office and everything else behind with it. I met with everyone I needed to, spoke with anyone who was willing to listen to me, and I'm in the process of somehow managing to leave ahead of schedule. I was so ready to go home that my own flightiness could have grown a pair of wings and I could have flown myself back to Forks. Instead Shelly is following me around the office, picking up anything I leave in my path.

"What time is your flight?" She asks, following me out of my office and into our waiting room.

I glance at my watch. "About three hours from now. I have got to get to the airport."

"Do you need a cab?"

I shake my head, "No, thank you, though. I set up a service last night." With one last look around, I stop and look at Shelly, the person who has somehow managed to keep me in check for the past week. One day I'll be able to offer her my gratitude but for now I can't find the words.

"Well, let me get a good look at you before you leave."

I laugh as she spins me around. "I'm only leaving for two weeks. You'll miss me that much?"

She rolls her eyes, "Don't flatter yourself. I just know that once you go back there, you'll come back here a changed person."

"And why is that?"

Her hands are on her hips and she's looking at me like I'm crazy. "Did you not come back here after Thanksgiving a little different than how you left, yes?"

"I was admittedly distracted, yes."

"And you're not anymore?"

"Oh yes, I am. Still a mess." I'm still very much a mess but now I love every second of it. Ever since earlier in the week when Bella and I made that turn from being friendly to being a little friendlier, I've been dying to see where this is going. "Maybe I've decided that being messy is a good thing. Could be a great thing."

She pats me on the back and opens the door for me to walk through. "Just talk to Emmett. Everything will work out." I turn to give her one last hug before I leave. She turns her head up to look at me, placing both hands on the sides of my face. "And with Bella, you don't need my advice on that. You already know what to do."

xxxx

This time, when I board my flight I don't have to deal with anyone bothering me. The flight is late, filled with busy travelers like myself, and I get myself situated comfortably in my seat. I text everyone I know back home to tell them the plane is about to take off, and I shut my phone down quietly. The hastiness of the week quickly catches up to me, and I find myself dozing minutes after takeoff. Before I know it, the captain is informing us of our impending arrival, and I wipe the sleep from my eyes and stretch my long legs forward as much as I could. I look forward to sleeping in tomorrow almost as much as I look forward to seeing Bella.

We taxi fairly quickly on the runway, and being that our flight is so late at night, the wait at baggage claim isn't as disastrous as it could have been. All in all, a rather easy travel experience after a hellish week is just what I needed to bring on some Christmas spirit.

I look for my dad in his usual spot, and being the constant he is, I spot him effortlessly. We do our normal routine, him popping the trunk, me tossing my luggage plus a few small presents I managed to purchase in person and not online, and we take off back home. I can feel the excitement budding through me even at the late hour.

"Didn't we just do this yesterday?" He asks, laughing as he merges onto the interstate. I nod, agreeing with him.

"Three weeks ago but you're right. It does feel like yesterday."

"I could get used to this."

It's crazy how much has happened in a span of three weeks. Endless conversations flood my memory, and it reminds me to check my phone to let her know I've landed.

 _Can't wait to see you._ She has already texted me, always beating me whenever I want to say something to her.

I could get used to this, too.

 _Be there soon,_ I reply quickly.

Not soon enough.

xxxx


	5. Chapter 5

My room darkening shades do not disappoint. It could be 10:00 in the morning but I would never know it with how amazing the shades work. I roll over in my bed, stretching out on the crisp gray sheets with a pillow tucked under my arm and one under my head. My eyes flutter open slowly, noting that it is still so wonderfully dark in my room, so I snuggle deeper into my pillows and close my eyes again.

By the time my dad and I had pulled into the driveway last night it was way past midnight, so we said our goodnights and headed to our rooms. Weary from traveling, I had sent a text to Bella and to Emmett, separate texts of course, just letting them know that I had made it safely and would catch up with them sometime tomorrow. I had rolled into bed and was asleep before my head had hit the pillow.

So here I am, dozing peacefully while the world around me bristles with Christmas errands and Christmas parties. With no plans set in stone other than a few here and there, my goal is to take everything one day at a time. If I want to join the pre-holiday festivities around town, then I will. If I want to stay in my pajamas all day, binge watching Netflix while eating my weight in Christmas cookies, then I will. If I want to stay in bed and dream about Bella all day long, then absolutely I fucking will.

That was what I was doing before I briefly opened up my eyes a few minutes before, in between that moment of asleep and awake when it takes your conscience a second or two to tell you where you are. Before I remember that I'm in my bed, alone, I dream of her again at Kline's, the last place her and I were together. She's asking me if I still want to come together and I'm pretty sure my answer is so filthy that I can barely repeat it, and it makes her pull me by my shirt to get closer to her, closer to where she is sitting in my seat at the bar.

I lean in, running my fingers down her arm from her shoulder, my lips igniting a blaze between her jaw and ear. I want her so bad and I'm pretty sure I whisper that into her ear but something keeps tapping me on my leg. It takes my focus off of her, and in my dream I reach down to flick it away, like a mosquito at a summertime barbeque. Clearly this little insect must be aware that I'm trying to kick some major game, right?

I'm wrong again. This time the tapping escalates to a hard shove on my back, strong enough that it wakes me from my unconscious hallucinations and I'm instantly blinded by this light coming from the direction of my bedroom window.

"The fuck?" My voice is raspy from sleep and shock from the ultimate betrayal of my room darkening shades. They were supposed to block out all types of light, even if my bedroom was sitting on the sun.

"Did you not believe me when I said we'd be running by 8:00?" It's the voice from my dream, the voice I've been thinking about for weeks now, in my bedroom. _In my bedroom_.

"Hey, who let you in here?" I'm wide awake now, sitting up hastily and carefully as not to displace my sheets and blankets that hopefully hide the evidence of my dream.

"Your mom, who do you think?" Bella asks, continuing to slide the curtains all the way over. The sunlight allows me to see her in a different light, not a dimly lit bar or a kitchen with blinding fluorescence. She's even more beautiful in natural light, if that's even possible. And she's here in my room, standing in front of me with her hands on her hips, dressed as if she's about to run a marathon.

Looking fantastic in her exercise clothes, too.

"You could have called you know," I say, reaching over to my nightstand next to my bed and grabbing my phone to see what time it was. 7:45 Am. I groan out loud, rolling over onto my stomach and throwing my pillow over my head.

"I did, as you can see. A lot. You must have been in a deep sleep." She's wandering around my room now, aimlessly looking at anything that catches her eye. Thank God this isn't my permanent residence anymore and it doesn't look the way I kept it in high school because she for sure would be running for the hills by now. Very slightly, I adjust the pillow so I can see her out of the small slit of my eye.

"Yes, I was. Are you forgetting that I've had a week from hell and didn't get in until after midnight?"

"No, I'm not forgetting."

"I think you are."

"Why do you think that?"

I let the pillow fall to the side of my head, sitting up on my elbows to get a better angle of her. "Because you're still here. And you still think I'm actually going to get up and run right now."

"Oh, you're going to run right now. Have you seen the time? Or a mirror?" She points to my hair and I don't need a mirror to know what it looks like. I can feel it bounce in a million ways just by moving my head.

"Yes, I know what time it is. Entirely too early to be having this conversation."

"Come on, we have a lot to do today. Run and bake Christmas cookies. Maybe a little shopping."

She may be cute as hell, but she's crazy, too. "All that in a day? That's more than I do in a week."

"Aren't you the one who's been leaving for work before dawn and coming home after dark?"

"Yes, but only for the past week so I could get all my work done, not so I can sprinkle Christmas magic around like Peter Pan."

She has her hands on her hips again, this time with a look of feigned annoyance on her face. "First of all, Peter Pan doesn't sprinkle anything; it's Tinkerbell who does all the sprinkling. And second, you don't like Christmas magic?"

I swallow thickly; walking that fine line with her seems to be a daily occurrence. "I'm starting to."

She smirks, throwing me the duffel bag with all my exercise belongings.

"Good. Now hurry up. I'll meet you downstairs."

xxxx

By the time we hit our first mile, I am happy she convinced me to go. Running in the city streets is nothing compared to the elevation and scenery a run in Forks will give to one's perspective. It's humbling, and the green trees around me make me and my problems feel infinitesimally small. There are mountains in the distance with snow caps topping its beauty, our breaths coming out in small puffs of smoke in rhythm with the sound of our sneakers hitting the pavement. It is refreshing and comforting and very enjoyable. We jog comfortably, able to hold a conversation throughout our morning exercise.

I stop for a moment when we come to a small bridge somewhere in town.

"Is this where you sent me that picture?" I ask her, pointing towards the overlook. She slows down and heads back over to where I've stopped, running in place to keep her momentum going. She nods.

"Yeah, actually. Isn't it beautiful?"

Beautiful is an understatement. The day is bright and chilly, for once not a cloud in the sky. The sun beams down between us, warming us just enough to keep our run going for a little while longer. She's still looking at the mountains in front of us, caught up in their monstrous shadows, and I stare at her openly. I try to memorize the shape of her face, the way the wind gently takes her hair that sits in a pile on the top of her head and brushes it back and forth in the air, her lips pink and plump and cheeks flushed with the cool air.

"Absolutely."

Bella turns to me then, and I hope she knows I'm not talking about the mountains. She smiles and touches my elbow, and in the cold air I am suddenly warmed to the core.

"Come on," she says, dragging me by the elbow to pick up our pace, "the cookies aren't going to make themselves, you know."

I swing into my place beside her, keeping in stride with her long, very nice legs. "Or, we can make the cookies another day. We have plenty of time."

"Nope, we have to get it done early in case we run out and need to make more."

"How many are you planning on making?"

" _We_ are planning on making a couple dozen."

" _We_ are doing no such thing."

"You'll do it with me."

I raise my eyebrows at her and gently nudge her off pace a little. Not much or I would most definitely be killed. "I will not."

She stops and cocks her head to the side, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "You don't want to do it with me?"

My mouth drops open in reply, unable to do anything but shake my head and turn to keep running after her. "Fuck."

xxxx

By the time we return home, it is nearing noon and according to Bella, the day is already getting away from us. I don't see how this is the case at all, but I still find myself underneath a hot shower in hopes it helps me face the day head on. The water is set on almost as hot as it can go, leaving my skin red and hot to the touch. It feels amazing, and helps ease some of the tension I felt in my muscles after our run. Bella took me on a different route today, one that I had never run in all my years living here. I don't know how that's possible either, with all the years I spent running track and running around the entire town, but I guess that's just one of Bella's gifts. She sees things I often overlook.

I take a little longer than normal, seeing as I had other areas of tension in my body that needed to be relieved, so when I come downstairs I hear Bella and my mother in the kitchen, tackling the Christmas cookies.

"See, the trick is using dough that doesn't need to be chilled. Saves so much time." I hear Bella say, her expertise in the Christmas cookies evident in her confidence that exudes from her in waves. I want to stay unnoticed and just watch her, stare at her from afar so I can get a chance to finally just wrap my head around this whole situation. There's no denying it anymore, to myself or her, that she's got me hooked, so far gone that I'm willing to spend the afternoon covered in flour and metal cookie cutters.

"Great. I'll remember that for next time." My mom says, smiling at her and letting her thrive in her element. I shift from my spot on the wall and try to walk into the kitchen as if I had been coming from upstairs and not eavesdropping. Bella's eyes are on me the whole time, never leaving mine as I make my way beside her.

I'm standing close to her now, so close that I can smell her shampoo from her shower after our run, and I'm suddenly irritated that my mom is on the other side of the counter, completely oblivious to her high ranked status of cockblocking.

"Okay, so we want to make sure that we have a lot of each kind of cookie. We have bells, trees, angels, candy canes, you name it, we have it." Bella says to my mom, her eyes breaking contact with me.

"Why are we making a couple dozen of these? I don't even know a couple dozen people." I interrupt them, both of them turning to stare at me.

Bella points her finger at me and says, "You can never have enough Christmas cookies. They'll be gone by Christmas Day, you'll see."

"Well, if the Pastry Chef of the West is making them, then I happen to think you're right." Since I'm still standing next to her, I elbow her side again, and this time a giggle emerges from her mouth before she tries to stifle it. At that moment I glance away at Bella and up at my mom, wondering if I was being too risky with her standing in the same room as us. Luckily she's too busy finding more cookie cutters in her cabinet to pay us any attention. I'm grateful for the distraction, still surprised by how fast things can go from zero to one with Bella in mind.

An hour later, the three of us are surrounded by cookies everywhere, a multitude of each kind placed in an organized fashion. We pass the time by listening to Christmas music and telling stories about all of us as kids. Bella bends down to place another set of cookies in the oven, throwing the oven mitts on the counter beside her when she's finished.

"I didn't know you were into baking." I say this to her as she takes another ball of dough and begins to kneed it on the counter, sprinkling flour on her hands, on the dough and the rolling pin. She throws an extra handful of flour in my direction and laughs when it lands in my face.

She answers, "I was sixteen, sophomore year. I had Home Ec and it all kind of started from there, I guess."

"You were sixteen, which would have made me..." I ponder out loud but she interrupts me.

"Twenty."

"Oh. Already in Chicago by then."

"Yeah, which makes sense why you wouldn't know."

"Yeah, but I'm surprised no one else mentioned it. Your parents, Emmett, Alice."

She shrugs, "It wasn't like I stayed in my house and baked all day for the whole town."

I look at her for a moment before pointing at all of the cookies invading our kitchen. "Yeah, because that would be crazy."

She laughs again, the sound going straight into my stomach. "Joke all you want, but you won't be able to have just one of my cookies."

There it is again, one more set of boundaries between us being broken one by one. I take a moment to wipe away a fleck of flour that has fallen on her nose. "I don't doubt it."

We stare at each other again, only two of us in the kitchen at the moment, my mom having slipped out a little while ago to do a little more wrapping. It would take so little effort to just take her face in my hands and move in swiftly, pressing my lips to hers in a kiss that we'd never forget. I can see myself running my hands down her back, her fingers tangled in my hair.

But I don't because she's smiling knowingly at me and begins to talk, "Edward Cullen, are you going to kiss me?"

I look down at the space between us, our bodies having moved closer together unbeknownst to us. I turn my gaze to her, a small smile crossing my face. "I'm thinking about it."

"I like the way you think," she says, her voice barely above a whisper.

There was no holding back anymore, and just as I move to press my lips on hers, I hear the front door open loudly and we break apart like we are on fire.

"Sorry, sorry - I'm late. I got stuck in traffic. Did you start without me?" It was Alice, and never in my life have I been so bummed to see my sister. I hang my head down in defeat, Bella leaning her head into my shoulder, laughing at our unfortunate timing. On the other side of the counter I take her hand in mine, hoping to convey with a touch what I wish to say with words. _We need to finish this later._

Without my eyes leaving Bella's, I answer Alice as she walks into the kitchen. "Yeah, we had to start since Bella has decided she needs to feed the whole west coast."

"Ignore him; he's just being a Bah Humbug." Alice says, tossing her jacket on a chair around the island.

"Don't you mean a Scrooge?" I counter.

"Well, whatever it is, that's what you're being."

"Enough, children. Are these ready to go in?" Bella asks, the pastry chef in her taking over again.

"Yep. 6 - 8 minutes, I'm not sure how fast your Mom's oven bakes."

"We'll stick with 6."

I slip out of the kitchen, letting the two of them continue on with their adventures in cookie baking. I think I've done my part for the day, maybe not crossing the finish Iine but now more than ever, I'm not regretting my decision to enter the race.

Something big is happening here, and I know when my phone goes off a few minutes later I know she knows it, too.

 _Soon._

 _xxxx_

 _ **Hey, all. Your response to this story is heartwarming, a perfect Christmas gift for myself. :) Things are going to get a little busy over here for the next few days so most likely I won't be getting a chance to slip away and get on the computer. You'll be seeing me soon, though. Have a great holiday and give all your loved ones an extra squeeze.** _


	6. Chapter 6

"I can't remember the last time I woke up to a White Christmas," Alice says as we watch the latest weather report in my parent's living room. We've been watching the Weather Channel all day, as it is my Dad's absolute favorite channel, and all of the signs are here for a snowstorm: gray sky, cold temperatures, and clouds heavy with precipitation. I took my dad's car and went to the grocery store earlier in the day and the air smelled of the impending snow, and the store was filled with panic-stricken shoppers fighting over bread and milk and eggs. Why those three items of food are the hottest commodity during a storm I'll never understand - I mean, have they not had Tortino's Pizza Rolls?

It's the day before Christmas Eve, or Christmas Eve Eve as Bella calls it, and my family and I are all surrounded by reams of wrapping paper, bows, tape and scissors. It's the first time I've ever done any wrapping of any kind this early, and it feels great to be able to wrap without being under any pressure. My presents are actually already wrapped, sitting nicely under the tree just waiting to be shared. I didn't go crazy this year, as I really only have to get a few things, but I decided to be a nice guy and help my parents and sister with all of theirs because apparently they exchange gifts with everyone on this side of the equator. My dad runs his own pediatric practice and he and my mother are very generous to his staff every year. I know this because I'm currently wrapping another bottle of wine, which isn't hard but has started to become monotonous after the sixth bottle.

Alice is on the floor, sitting with her legs tucked under her and a pile of gifts to her right, our Christmas tree looming over us with clear, white lights and red and gold ribbon looped intricately around the seven foot tall tree. It is covered in ornaments from all of the places we've traveled, mostly with homemade ornaments Alice and I made when we were kids. A few of the ornaments have pictures of us inside them, the dates written on the back to solidify its place in time. Some of them are so completely horrible, like the one I made out of macaroni, but maybe one day when I have kids of my own I'll understand the significance of it all, or so my parents say.

"I wonder what the last minute shoppers are going to do with this storm now," my mom says, shaking her head at the ill timing. "That's usually you, Edward. At the mall on Christmas Eve."

I shrug, "I'm usually working until the last minute. Honestly, I think the last time I've been home this early for the holidays was the last time Alice woke up to a White Christmas."

"I guess you're right. Not that I'm complaining. You know we love to have you both here." My dad interjects, taking a break from his Weather Channel to join our conversation.

"You say that now but we're both still here for a week," Alice jokes, taking her scissors and sliding them through to the other side of the unrolled wrapping paper.

"After twenty years of you both in the house, I think we can take another week," my dad laughs.

I laugh and look over at Alice, "Remember that time we tried to sneak upstairs after Grandma's funeral and we knocked over all the flowers on the stairs?"

"We? That was you!"

"Where did you two sneak off to after Grandma's funeral?" Mom questions.

Alice shakes her head, "Nowhere. Edward and I were wide awake in the middle of the night and we snuck downstairs to eat some leftovers from the services. After we ate, which we did unbelievably quietly, we were walking back upstairs and Edward stepped all over the flowers from the funeral and knocked them all down the stairs, ourselves included." By the time she finishes her story, her and I are laughing so hard there are tears coming from our eyes.

My parents are laughing too and Mom is shocked, holding her hands over her heart in surprise. "How come I never knew about this?"

"You had a lot on your mind so we all thought it would be something we never spoke of again. Until now, apparently." Dad recalls.

Mom points to my Dad, "You knew about this, too? And all these years you told me Ellie ate those flowers during the night?"

This brings howls of laughter again, all of us thinking of our family dog that has been gone for years that bore the brunt of the ruined flowers. My laughs come to a close as I wipe my eyes and place another bottle of wine in the pile deemed finished, looking around the room to find another present to wrap. Alice must read my mind and tosses another one in my direction, the present landing softly at my feet. I pick it up, turning it around in my hands before grabbing the supplies I need.

"Who is this for?"

It's a gift card for a Bed and Breakfast and Spa resort.

"Charlie and Renee. It's a cute little place they've been going to for years."

"Is there a date on this?" I try to say as casually as I can even though I am almost ripping the envelope in half trying to see for myself.

"No, why? Are you kids planning another party or something?"

"Yeah, you guys were awful at hiding whatever it is you guys used to plan all the time."

If we wanted to throw a party, we could always go to Emmett's and have ourselves a great time, that isn't a problem. The problem I am finding is that ever since Bella and I had that almost kiss in my kitchen a few days ago, it's as if all of our families have swarmed in for the kill, occupying all of our time and privacy. The one nice day we had for our first run was the last time any of us had seen the sun, the rain filling the days and nights, and with the temperatures finally dropping, snow is finally on the horizon. With the weather being unfavorable and our schedules suddenly so demanding, we haven't been able to run outside for a few days. Bella and I both love the holiday season and normally I would be the first one in line to partake in all of the celebrations and traditions, but all I really want to do is be with Bella, tell her how much she's changed me, and finish the kiss we almost started.

I am not exaggerating when I say that every second of my time, other than when I am sleeping, has been accompanied by someone. It's either Emmett, who came in sometime a few days ago, or Alice, or my parents. On her end, her mother always volunteers at the children's hospital in Seattle every Christmas, and this year is no different. The only difference is that this year, my mom and sister and Bella tagged along, too.

This doesn't surprise me because they are all amazing women who care more for others than they do about themselves.

But damnit, I'm starting to grow antsy without her, having gotten used to her always being nearby in the almost week that I've been home. My phone is still glued to my fingers, that's a given, ready and waiting for any ounce of contact. When we're together, my eyes never leave her, watching her in fear that I'll miss something. I've gotten used to the feeling in my stomach I get whenever she looks at me, sends me that smile that hopefully she's given to no one other than to me. My breath hitches in my throat, my heart starts to hammer in my chest and I have to shake myself back to reality so that no one catches on to what's happening to me.

To us.

We're past the point of denying our attraction, and for that I am grateful. It's a relief to know that what I feel isn't wasted, to know that what I feel is what she is feeling, too. Our conversations over the past few days have become much deeper than before, both of us willing to drop that barrier.

She told me about culinary school and the real reason she decided to travel with her friends before settling down with a career, and it wasn't because of a lack of talent or fear of responsibility on her part. Growing up in a small town as the daughter of the Chief of Police and the little sister of Emmett, it was easy to remain in the shadows for so long. Her roommate in college was the exact opposite of her, and showed her a life she had never known. She had few constrictions and enjoyed each stop on their way. She was used to doing what she pleased without any questions asked, and now living back home had started to restrict her freedoms and the norms that she had conformed for herself.

The Swans' were great people, don't get me wrong, and Charlie was actually pretty cool for being the Chief of our small, little town. I understood Bella completely, telling her that my parents were the same way, and it wasn't intentional. It's just what parents do. They hover.

I glance at my phone, seeing that it's a little after 9:00, and I wonder if she's back from the mall with Emmett. He, of course, hadn't started his shopping yet and she agreed to help him out since he was on a time crunch with this snowstorm. I finish putting Charlie and Renee's gift card in this fancy gift box my mom has and I get up from my place on the couch, heading into the kitchen to see what kind of snacks I can find.

I scan the fridge first, seeing leftovers from dinners and lunches over the past few days, none of them really striking my mood. I shut the door with a sigh, tempted to open the refrigerator again to see if I may have missed anything, but no matter how many times I open the refrigerator and look, nothing will miraculously appear out of thin air. I look around again, and I see the red and green Tupperware filled with the Christmas cookies that we baked a few days ago.

Well, they're not filled anymore because once again, Bella is right. Christmas cookies have become the snack of choice over the past few days, and our supply has become dangerously low. She said they'd be gone before Christmas day, and she wasn't lying. I open the Tupperware and take out an angel, savoring the sweetness of the sugar cookie in my mouth. I take my phone out of my pocket and shoot her a quick text.

 _Almost out of Christmas cookies._

She replies a minute later, _Told you!_

I pop another one in my mouth and text back, _If you could come over and bake some more, that'd be great._

Her response comes faster than her other one and leaves me slumping my shoulders in defeat, in complete surrender to this girl.

 _If I come over now it's not going to be to bake some cookies, that's for sure._

I groan out loud, glancing down at my pants to see the reaction that she clearly is looking for. I try to make it upstairs in my room before I turn sixteen years old again and my parents catch me.

 _Are you trying to have me killed?_ I text once I'm in the safety of my own room again, running my hands through my hair in frustration. I exhale loudly.

 _No, why?_

 _Are you still with Emmett?_

 _Yeah, we're playing the Christmas Present Wrapping Game._

I fall back on my pillows and answer her. _The what?_

She responds quickly with, _You take a drink whenever you lose something, like the scissors, tape, bows, labels, pens, you know._

I laugh out loud, so happy that I didn't play this game when I was wrapping presents. I'd be screwed. _Wow. Emmett must be wasted._

 _He is. He loses something with every gift._

I admit, _I can't say I'm any better._

 _I'm not too bad but this wine is awfully good._

 _Oh, is it? How many glasses have you had_?

 _Enough for me to ask you to sneak over tonight._

This girl is really going to be the death of me. Here I am trying to do the right thing and be respectful, and here she is making me rethink every decision I've ever made. I text her back once I've thought it over again. _You're aware of all the guns your Dad has, right?_

 _Oh, please. Everyone will be asleep. I promise I won't be too loud._

Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

 _Now you really are trying to fucking kill me._

 _Okay, fine. I just miss you._

I sigh, _Me, too. You'll be at dinner tomorrow night?_

 _Of course._

Every year, my parents throw a party on Christmas Eve. The snowstorm may impact how many guests arrive this year but knowing how many people look forward to it every year, I wouldn't be surprised if we are at max capacity.

 _I can't wait._

xxxx

"Who taught you how to tie a tie?"

I'm standing in the foyer the next evening when Alice appears next to me, her face shining in the mirror I'm using to finish getting myself ready for the party. I am deep in concentration, my tongue peeking out of the corner of my mouth as I make my finishing touches. Once I'm finished, I run my hand down my tie, inspecting it to make sure it lies in its proper place. I'm pleased with how it looks and I turn to Alice.

"Shelly. I walked in one morning ready for an important meeting with a client and she took one look at my mess of a tie and wouldn't let me leave the office until I couldn't get it wrong."

She laughs and shakes her head, "I'm impressed, Big Brother."

I have to admit that I did take the time to make myself look presentable tonight. I took the time to shave away the stubble that has been growing over the past week, and I made sure my hair was toned down enough so it isn't in its usual unruly tangle of copper and unrest. I made sure my black dress pants were ironed and crisp, throwing on a red tie over a black button down shirt.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, and there is no way I can let Bella leave tonight without telling her how I really feel. I need to tell her that what I feel goes beyond a kiss; that the connection we have is real and unlike anything I've ever known. She needs to know that she haunts me in everything I do and every move I make. That she is always on my mind in some way, and that I am absolutely crazy about her.

I thought about her a lot over the past day, more than I usually do. The snow started late last night and continued to fall all day, only beginning to taper down over the last hour or so. As I laid in my bed, watching the snow turn the ground into a Winter Wonderland, I realized just how lucky I was.

How often do people grow up together only to drift apart and never see each other again? How often are people simply just neighbors, people you wave to while going to and from your car? People you see when you get the mail or when shoveling your driveway?

Not me. I was one of the lucky ones. Emmett was my neighbor, yes, but he was my best friend. He had my back since day one and to this day would be the one standing next to me if shit were to ever go down. We grew up together, experienced all that life brings together, and we would get through this next hurdle together, like we've always done.

When the Swans' moved in to the house next door, we didn't get the kind of neighbors you just wave to. Instead of neighbors, we got family. And at Christmas time, isn't that the only thing that matters?

All this time, I was thinking of how hard this could be, of how complicated these feelings between Bella and I could make things, but I didn't stop to think about how easy and perfect it could be.

Everything our families have will be the same, but now there will be _more_.

More laughs, more love, more traditions. The thought warms me all over.

I bring my attention back to Alice. "Thanks. You're looking nice yourself. You have a date coming tonight?"

She scoffs and rolls her eyes, "Do you really think I'd bring a date to a party with Mom and Dad and the Swan's? He'd run away screaming."

I laugh and try to convince her otherwise. "They're not that bad."

She crosses her arms across her chest, her sarcasm transparent and strong. "Right. So why was it that you didn't bring Angela here for Christmas? Or Thanksgiving?"

I deadpan for a few moments before conceding.

"Point taken. Besides, I broke up with Angela a few days after I came home from Thanksgiving."

She stops from fixing her hair in the mirror and turns to me, "Really? Last I heard from you was that you two were great and having fun."

I thrust my hands in my pockets and shrug my shoulders. "That's what it was. Having fun."

Alice is eyeing me strangely, "And since when are you not up for having fun?" She's finished in the mirror now and takes a few steps closer to me when her hands fly to her recently lipsticked mouth, "Oh my God, is there someone else?"

I cringe at the volume of her voice, "What? No. Keep your voice down." I look around me quickly, hoping that my mother is nowhere in the vicinity of this conversation.

Alice is blocking my escape and is standing with her hands on her hips. "Who is she? Tell me."

I manage to squeeze behind her, trying to avoid this conversation as much as I tried avoiding the sex talk with my parents I had when I was a teenager. "There's nothing to tell. Why are you so close to me?"

Her face is inches from mine, her eyes darting back and forth as she examines me from a range that has popped my personal bubble.

"Because you've always been a horrible liar so I want you to look me in the eye and tell me." Her eyes widen and she might as well have been shining a big interrogation light in my face.

"Why do you care so much?" I deflect, putting my hands on her shoulders and gently easing her back into her own bubble.

She's quiet for a few moments, contemplating what to say. Her words are soft when she speaks again. "Because there's something different about you. I've noticed little things here and there and now that I think about it, I can see all the signs."

"What signs?" I run my hands up and down my face, closing my eyes as I can literally hear my patience being tested by the second.

She starts to count them on her fingers, "You're always on your phone. Always smiling. You've actually been a pretty decent human being since you've been back."

I smile and point a finger in her direction. "It doesn't necessarily mean I'm seeing someone."

She rolls her eyes. "You don't have to be seeing someone. But you definitely have a person."

There goes whatever is left of my patience. "A what? Why do I feel like I have to pull out a dictionary every time I talk to you?"

"You'll figure it out. And so will I." She backs away slowly, pointing two fingers at her eyes and then pulling them back to point at me, mimicking Robert De Niro in whatever movie that was.

"Okay." I say sarcastically, shoving her to the side playfully as I try to make my way out of the room.

"Oh look at you two. So beautiful! Okay, smile for the camera!" Before Alice and I can protest, we are sandwiched together, my mom cheesing at the camera as if she's in the shot with us. I wonder if that's something Mom's everywhere do: smile as they take someone else's picture.

Alice takes the camera out of Mom's hand once she is satisfied with how it looks. "Here, let's set the timer and we can take a group shot. All of us."

I glance at the silver watch on my wrist to see if other guests are due to arrive. "Or we can wait five minutes and someone else can take the picture."

"No, this is better. Okay, on three!"

The picture turns out great, all four of us smiling and caught up in the spirit. It would have made for a great Christmas card if my mom hadn't already took one of the four of us over Thanksgiving weekend and mailed them all out a few days later. Regardless, it's a great picture and we take the next few minutes sending it to each other so we all have a copy before the doorbell rings and the guests begin to arrive.

I am in the middle of a conversation with one of my dad's colleagues when our doorbell rings as a formality and the door opens, Emmett making his entrance into the party. He's greeted with holiday wishes from everyone around him before they return to their previous conversations, giving Emmett a chance to open the door and step aside so the rest of his family can enter. His eyes find mine as Rose enters, and I excuse myself from my conversation to meet him.

"Merry Christmas Eve, Bro," he extends his hand out for a shake, and I return the gesture in earnest.

"You too, man. Here, let me take your coat," I say to Rose before she turns to make room for Charlie and Renee. I take their coats as well after saying my hellos, noticing that Bella is nowhere to be found. I try to hide my disappointment, not trusting my voice enough to ask where she is. The Swan's and Emmett and Rose don't need to be introduced to anyone else due to everyone already knowing each other, so I slip away into the spare room off the living room to place their jackets on the bed with all of the other jackets belonging to the party goers.

I am shutting the door to the room when I hear the doorbell again, and trying not to trip over my own feet or shove anyone out of my way, I finally make my way to the door.

Not fast enough though, as Alice beats me to it and I skid to a stop, nearly crashing into poor old Mrs. Clearwater, our other neighbor from down the street. Alice swings the door open, and I'm greeted with an early Christmas present that up until recently, I didn't even know I wanted.

Of course, it's Bella at the door, and she has little snowflakes in her hair and on her jacket, and she's giving Alice a hug that she should be giving me. I want to interrupt them and push my sister all the way outside into the snow, but instead my feet are planted in their spot once Bella shrugs her coat off and she hands it to Alice.

I'm a guy. I don't know much about clothes or dresses or hair or makeup but what I see is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. She's wearing a dress, a black dress with lace sleeves to her wrists and lace lining the edges of the dress. It falls graciously to her thighs, short enough to allow me to enjoy the view but respectable enough for a nice Christmas dinner. Her dark hair is curled with half of it pulled into a clip and the rest landing thickly in the middle of her back. Her eyes are smoky and her lips are shining in the light of the hallway, and I could easily have spent the next hour standing there admiring her from afar but Emmett's voice booms in the hallway.

"Where'd you go, Cullen? I brought you a drink."

I want to thank him for blowing my spot but I don't, instead taking the eggnog he's offering me with a distracted laugh.

"Sorry, I was just putting the coats away."

"Hey, Alice, I was looking for you." Emmett says, walking over to where Alice and Bella stand at the door. Bella looks up from her conversation with Bella, and notices me standing there. She smiles slowly, looking down at her heels that leave fantastic fantasies in my head.

"Hey, Edward," she says. Like I have with every other guest, I lean down and place a soft kiss on her cheek. I try to hide my feelings, hopefully making it look like it is no big deal to greet her like this, but on the inside, my heart rate is rising as I pull away from her.

Emmett is clueless as he finishes his glass of eggnog, his head raised back as he tries to get every last drop. Rose has just joined us so she was not a witness to our greeting.

But I made a mistake.

And I know what mistake that is when I catch the knowing stare from my sister as she stands slightly behind Bella.

She knows.

And she knows that she knows because she said it herself an hour ago. I am a horrible liar.

She starts to laugh silently and I shake my head at her so subtly that I don't even know if she sees me at all, but I know she does when she turns to Emmett.

"You were looking for me? Why?" She answers him as if nothing had just happened between us, not missing a beat. I let out the breath that I didn't even realize I had been holding. If Bella was aware of what had just happened between Alice and I she doesn't show it, her attention on Emmett as he is about to answer Alice.

"I just hired this guy at work. I think he'd be perfect for you."

"Have you not learned your lesson from the last guy you set me up with?" We all laugh, remembering the guy that Emmett had sent over to Alice at Kline's a few years ago. He was so out of her league it wasn't even funny, even though we all had a good laugh about it.

He shakes his head, "No, this guy, Jasper, he's cool as hell. He's got this southern accent and - "

"Accent?" Alice interjects, linking his arm through hers. "Let's talk over a drink, shall we?"

They're laughing as the two of them and Rose disappear into the kitchen, leaving Bella and I alone in the foyer still. She shakes her head at them.

"I'd be scared if I were Alice. Do we trust Emmett's judgement?"

"Most of the time, no. But who knows, maybe this will work out."

"You're awfully optimistic."

"You're beautiful."

We've walked from the foyer and into the living room where the guests have just left to head into the dining room to begin making their plates for dinner. Bella stops in front of the Christmas tree, and for the first time since I've known her, she smiles shyly and looks down. It's not for long though, and soon I'm getting lost in the chocolate pools of her eyes again.

"Thank you," she says, "Are you sure that's not just Christmas magic talking?"

I shake my head hard, taking her hands and placing them in both of mine, holding them in place between us at our waists. "Can't be. I've felt this way ever since I saw you on Pie Night."

I'm holding her hands in mine, my fingers tracing her skin in circles and haphazard patterns. Her fingertips are chasing mine, and every now and then our hands meet and we start the paths again, leaving fire in their wake. I tower over her in height, and she looks up at me with a playful smile.

"Pie Night is the start of the holiday season," she says, knowing full well that it's not the rush of the holiday season that has brought us to this moment. We're standing in front of the tree, the lights casting shadows that dance across her face, crystalizing her skin and her eyes in a picture of beauty.

I shake my head again, this time my hands leaving hers to gently cup her face in both of my hands. "It's not the holiday season, it's not the wine, and it's not the snow. It's just you, Bella." My voice sounds thick and honest, and I know I'm throwing myself out there but I'm too much in the moment to care. I lean my forehead against hers, closing my eyes and taking everything in. Her voice, her smell, her touch. "Do you feel it, too?"

She answers in a whisper, her arms slowly coming up to wrap around my waist. "How can I not? I feel it when I wake up, when I go to sleep. All the time."

I take my forehead off of hers, creating a distance between us that I despise immediately. The distance isn't for long, and with her face still between my fingers and her arms wrapped around my waist, we finally finish the almost kiss from a few days ago. Her lips are soft and warm, even better than how I imagined they would feel against mine. We move as slow as the twinkling lights on the tree behind us, and somehow I know that this is my last first kiss. It's like nothing I've ever experienced as we create a comfortable rhythm between us, soft presses, slow pulls, shaky breaths in between.

It feels like a lifetime when we finally pull away from each other, and I wonder if my smile is as wide as hers.

"Merry Christmas Eve, Bella." My breath comes out a little more winded than I intended, which is shocking considering I can run three miles a day without so much as a huff. Not ready to end this moment between us, I pull her back to me and press three short kisses against her lips again before we break apart.

"Merry Christmas Eve, Edward."

xxxx

"I think that's the last of them," my mom says as she loads the last plate into the dishwasher. The party ended an hour ago and we quickly try to clean up the remnants of the good time, at least to the point where we can enjoy Christmas morning without a mess around us. My feet are killing me, I'm beyond tired, but it doesn't matter. I guess this is what Cloud Nine feels like, when your whole life can be in shambles around you but you're completely oblivious to it because the only thing you can think about and the only thing that matters is the person that put you on Cloud Nine to begin with.

My lips still tingle from Bella's kiss a few hours before, and I shake my head in shame that I have gone thirty years without having kissed Bella before this night. I was seriously depriving myself of something so great that a small part of me has pity on all the other guys in the world that would never get to experience it.

A very, very small part of me because no guy is ever going to get the chance again.

I say goodnight to my parents and sister, all of us disappearing with yawns and dragging feet. I'm two steps into my room when my phone buzzes and in the next second, I'm practically running to the front door after reading the text on my phone.

I open the door quickly, barely seeing her before she has my tie in her hands. She pulls me to her roughly, capturing my lips with hers and I suddenly have her in my arms, our mouths meeting in a frenzied fire. Our lips part and I feel her tongue dance with mine, my arm pressing her into me as I try to somehow close the door behind us quietly. Once the door is closed I lean her up against it, my mouth leaving hers for the first time to make their way down her jaw and behind her ear. I feel her hands slide up and down my back before settling into my hair and pulling my lips back to hers, our breathing becoming heavier as we lose ourselves in one another.

"I. had. to. see. you." She says between kisses.

I think I nod, I know I slide my fingers underneath her shirt to be met with the silky soft skin of her back. I pull away and the two of us are breathing like we just ran a sprint.

I press my forehead against hers as we try to come back down to Earth. Beneath the moonlight and the soft snow falling on the ground behind us, I kiss her again, softly this time before pulling away to look at her.

"I'm never letting you go."

xxxx

 **A/N : Good evening, all! I really really really wanted to be able to celebrate our Christmas Eve in RL with a kiss between our Bella and Edward, but I wasn't able to get away to my computer. Like I said, I'm aiming to finish this by New Year's, give or take depending on my schedule. I can't thank all of you enough for spreading the word about this little story. It makes me happy to hear how happy these guys are making you, and myself included! I'll try to answer reviews in the coming days. Until next time, have a great one!**


	7. Chapter 7

"We can't stay here," I say between kisses. My words are not enough to make either of us stop or move in the direction of my bedroom. We are still against the front door in the dark, our only spotlight being the moon and the dim glow from the Christmas lights my parents have around their front porch. Her legs have somehow found their way around my waist and her fingers have been doing tantalizing things with my hair, bringing soft hisses from my lips onto her neck and back to her mouth again. She is weightless in my arms, and I'm not sure if it's because she's a tiny little fireball or because of how she makes me feel, but either way, I can feel myself becoming obsessed with everything about her and us and I know that whatever hesitations I had about pursuing anything with Bella have long vanished.

"Your room?" She whispers in the glow of the night, her eyes fluttering open, emerald meeting chocolate in a rage of desire. I put her down gently and more importantly, quietly, her legs sliding down from my waist and my hands following them as they go, inching their way to places I can only be so lucky to experience. I turn to lead the way, her hand in mine as we tiptoe around the noisy creaks in the floor.

I have years of experience at dodging the creaks, having snuck in after curfew many a time with either Emmett, Alice or whatever girl I was seeing at the time. We get to the stairs and I turn around to put my finger on my mouth and point to the closed bedroom door at the top of the stairs.

"Parents," I mouth to her silently. Alice's room is further down the hall, and for a second I'm not sure who I'd rather catch us if the situation ever presented itself. I have to admit, Alice was a savior to me at the party, catching on to who _my person_ is, or whatever the fuck she called it, and not calling me out on it.

Yet.

I'm very much aware that Alice will no doubt corner me tomorrow sometime and demand every last detail about Bella and me. I am still very protective of our situation, fully believing that maybe this thing with Bella and I has fallen into place the way it has because we didn't include anyone else in on this adventure. We ignored everyone and kept it to ourselves, and it is by far the most important and most sacred secret I've ever kept.

As much as I would like to keep it between us, I know there's no way I can.

And as she stops me in the dark before we go up the stairs and jumps on my back for a piggy back ride, I know that however Emmett decides to handle the news, it will be worth it. She's trying to hide her giggles into the side of my neck as I pretend to wobble before charging the rest of the way up the stairs, and it's one of those simple moments between us that mean everything, the kind of moment that makes me shake my head at the intensity of what I'm feeling.

My door is the last, of course, so we tiptoe past both my parent's and Alice's rooms like our lives depend on it. I should say I tiptoe as Bella's legs are wrapped around me, only sliding off once we are in the privacy of my room with the door shut behind us.

"I think we were pretty quiet," Bella says from behind me, her fingers walking from my back and finding my hand. She tugs me to follow her to my bed, and she sits on the edge with her knees bent and tucked under chin. I shake my head.

"I don't trust myself with you in my bed."

It's the truest statement I have ever said in my life, and the last thing I need right now is a real reason for Emmett and Chief Swan and even my own father to kill me because they all surely would roast me alive if they found out that I had snuck Bella into my bed in the middle of the night with my family down the hall.

She laughs but tugs me harder anyway, "I don't trust myself, either."

We melt into each other again, our bodies pressed together as close as they can. We eventually fall backwards into my pillows, and she pulls me so I slide on top of her and it feels as if my body was made to fit against hers. She is persuasive as she moves beneath me, and I can feel my resolve starting to slip with each kiss, each touch, and each sound she elicits from her mouth, the soft sounds becoming permanently etched onto my own personal soundtrack of life. Everyone has a soundtrack they make of their favorite sounds that life has to offer. The whoosh of the ocean waves as they lap at the shore, the crackle of a fire, the heavy rainstorm that is so soothing that it puts you to sleep, the tea kettle on the stove to let you know that Grandma's tea is ready.

Now, as I trail my lips over hers, trickle them down her neck and across the smooth plane of her chest below, I can add the way Bella whispers my name in the dark to my soundtrack. It awakens every fiber in my body, electrifies them and makes me forget where we are and what we're about to do.

Her hands are glazing over every inch of my skin that she can reach, her dark hair fanning my gray pillowcases, her scent invading my sheets and self-control. She smells of snow and Christmas cookies and _home_ , and it makes me pull her closer to me and bring my mouth back to hers in a kiss that's heightened and a dangerous gateway.

"We have to stop," I whisper, rolling us over so we're lying on our sides, but my hands can't stop traveling down her body. They make their way beneath the blankets and come to a stop right where I want them to. With my hands full, I pull her to me and our bodies line up and meet again in a way that has me cursing under my breath.

"I know," she replies, and her hands are up to no good either. They slide down between us and begin to work at my belt buckle which is doing nothing to quell the strain from a few inches beneath it.

"I'm serious, girl. You're going to get me killed!" I whisper-yell, peering beneath the blankets as I gently pull her hands away. "Do you know how hard it is to say no to you?"

"Then don't say no." Bella's face is flushed and her breathing is labored, and it's a damn beautiful sight to watch her chest rise and fall with each breath. I look at her seriously before hanging my head down with a laugh.

"This is peer pressure." I say, and prop my head up with my elbow and hand. "Seriously, though. I can't let you spend the night in my bed with me and then you sneak back into your house before morning. Christmas morning, no less. You deserve more than that."

We're silent for a few moments, the only noise in the room being the sounds of the sheets as our hands explore each other beneath them.

She moves her hand up to my face and says, "I have everything I'll ever need."

This is the most serious I have heard her sound in the weeks that have lead up to this moment, and I remove her hand from my face and kiss her fingertips once before squeezing them back into my own.

"So do I," I say, rolling us over so I'm on my back and she's tucked into my side. "Are those Christmas trees on your pants?"

She lifts her head off of my chest and looks at me in blasphemy, "Of course! You always have to wear your Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve."

"Says who?" I ask, touching the soft material of her pajama bottoms in my hand.

"Says me. Here." She scoots out of my bed and reaches down to hand me a small present wrapped in green wrapping paper. She must have brought it with her but I was a little too distracted to notice before. I look at her with a raised eyebrow and unwrap it, opening the box slowly and carefully in case something jumps out at me.

"What the fuck are these?" I say, taking out a pair of similar pajamas but instead of being covered in Christmas trees, they are covered in reindeer.

"Yours."

"You got me Christmas pajamas?"

Bella nods excitedly, "Go put them on."

I shake my head but slide out of bed anyway and say, "You're lucky you're cute."

She smiles and sits her way up slowly so she's on her knees in the middle of my bed, slowly inching towards me where I stand near the footboard. "What else do you think about me?"

As she slinks her arms around my neck and my arms circle around her waist, she kisses me slowly and teasingly, her tongue barely grazing mine.

"Let's just stick to cute for tonight otherwise I'll forget the reasons why we had to stop." I practically growl and before disappearing into my bathroom to change into these ridiculous reindeer pajamas, I give her a soft pat on the ass and she giggles before dissolving into my pillows with a puff.

Even though I do look like I could guide Santa's sleigh for the evening, the pants are the softest and easily the most comfortable things I've ever worn. Never would I have thought I'd be in my bathroom in the middle of the night modeling a pair of reindeer pajamas, but here I am and the smile on my face is so wide it almost hurts and no matter what I do, I can't shake it off.

I really do feel like a kid on Christmas morning and the statement isn't actually far off from the truth. It is the early hours of Christmas morning and I am just as giddy as I was when I was ten years old, even though the reasons behind it have changed over the years.

Not wanting to waste any more time by myself, I emerge from the bathroom and she sits up from her spot, the blankets falling as she gets up to meet me. I take her in as she walks over to me, my eyes finally able to openly admire what I see. She's wearing a long sleeved tee shirt, loose enough for one of her shoulders to peek out of the top but tight enough for me to want to rip the shirt in half to see what she's hiding beneath it. There's a small space of flat skin between the bottom of her shirt and the top of her pants, and my fingertips land there softly while she looks at my pants.

Bella looks at me. "They're perfect!" She says in excitement. I nod and look down at our pants that aren't quite matching but are pretty damn close.

"Not gonna lie, they're comfortable as hell."

"Yes, they are. Now hurry back over here and warm me up." She's dragging me back into bed again. We make ourselves comfortable again, legs entangled as our hands get back to exploring each other as much as we can without getting ourselves too worked up.

"When did you know?" Bella asks after a few minutes of comfortable silence. My eyes are closed, enjoying the feel of her fingers sliding up and down my back but I open them to answer her. My fingers ring around a strand of her hair.

"When you were finishing your Pumpkin Cheesecake on Pie Night. It was just downhill from there," I reply, thinking of everything between then and now. "You?"

She's laughing and I already know what she's going to say. "Pie Night when you took out my mom's flowerpot."

My voice rises a few octaves in my defense. "I swear to God, it wasn't there when we left to go to the bar!"

Bella presses a hand to my mouth, "Shh, shh, you're going to wake everyone up."

I silence myself by kissing her again until we need to come up for air.

Our words are seldom and few for a while, our breathing becoming more and more shallow as the minutes tick by. I feel at peace, heavy with sleep yet wide awake and alive simultaneously. It's such a contradiction of emotion and I never knew it was possible to feel all of those things at once.

I love everything about it, and I can't imagine my life without it. Without her.

"I have to tell Emmett." I say, knowing that right now he is the last person we want to be thinking about. I feel her sigh in my arms and I squeeze her harder against me.

I know. Just promise me something?" She asks, moving her head off of my chest to stare at me.

I move a piece of hair out of her face, knowing that this will not be the only promise I make to her in my lifetime. "Anything."

"Don't let him or anyone else stop you from what you really want."

"I know what I want. You, Bella. And not having you just isn't an option."

Her answering smile is small but sincere, and she sinks back into her spot with her head on my chest.

"I know you have a lot more at stake here than I do. Emmett will always be my brother and my dad will always be my dad but you can lose a best friend and - "

"You're worth the risk."

We become silent again, her fingers tracing invisible paths on my chest on top of my tee shirt. "How did this happen?" She asks, and I can hear the disbelief in her voice. "How did we spend so many years together but not really seeing each other? It seems like such a waste."

"Maybe this," I say, motioning between the two of us, "is worth the wait."

"This is everything to me, Edward," she says, being her honest and open self, which she always has been ever since she texted me after Kline's on Pie Night. "I know it's probably too early to tell you that but it's true and I don't want anyone, even our families, to come between what we have."

"I told you; I'm never letting you go." I match her honesty with my own and solidify it with a kiss to the top of her head.

"I'm never going to let you." She says.

xxxx

I don't know the exact moment but at some point we must have drifted off to sleep. I'm lying on my back when I feel a nudge against my ribs and then something soft peppering my neck. Even in my state of unconsciousness I know who it is, my arms wrapping around her and pulling her on top of me. She trails her mouth from my neck to my lips, and meets me in a kiss that pulls me out of sleep and into an upright position, my hands tangling in her hair as the kiss grows with intensity. She's moving above me slowly, my hands falling to her hips to guide her in exactly the way we both want it. I'm aware I'm breaking my own rules but temptation is hard to resist when it comes in the form of Bella Swan.

She pulls away from my mouth, her lips heading to my ear to whisper, "It's 4:00 in the morning. Gotta head home before Santa comes. Walk me out?"

I groan and squeeze in one more kiss.

"Of course. Just let me think of Emmett naked or the square root of pi for a second."

She laughs loudly and climbs off of my lap, leaving me to my own accord for a few moments while she gathers her things.

I walk her halfway to her house with the snow all around us, my slippers doing nothing to prevent the cold and wetness from seeping in between my toes, but I barely feel it as I watch her disappear into her house in the early hours of the morning. In a few hours both of our families will be awake and we will be celebrating Christmas Day with our loved ones. There are certain things about Christmas morning that will always stay the same: gifts will be exchanged, wrapping paper will be everywhere, I'll cook my traditional Christmas Day breakfast but this Christmas will be different than the rest, even more magical than it always is.

And I have a feeling that this magic that I am wrapped around will stay wrapped for the rest of my life.

xxxx

Considering the late hour I fell asleep, I wake up at my leisure in the morning, stretching on my sheets and across my bed. I pull my pillow in towards me, sniffing in the evidence that what happened last night really did happen. It was real, Bella was in my bed and now everything smells like her. I close my eyes again, knowing that I could easily sleep the day away now that I had already gotten Bella as my Christmas gift, but I know it must be a later hour in the morning judging by the way my phone buzzes on my nightstand. Opening my eyes again and with one final stretch, I lean over and grab my phone to see a multitude of _Merry Christmas!_ texts from various people. I quickly respond to each one, Bella and Emmett being the first two. Next I reply to Shelly who answers me back right away. I bet her son is cursing the day he taught her how to text on a smartphone.

 _Did you do it?_ She asks.

 _Do what?_

I can almost hear her rolls her eyes halfway across the country. _Tell Emmett? Tell Bella?_

 _Definitely told Bella. Kissed her like our plane was going down._

 _Thatta boy. And Emmett?_

 _Not yet. Tomorrow hopefully._

 _You're working yourself up for nothing. The only person who should be working you up is your girl!_

Shelly always did have a way of putting me in perspective. _Ookay, on that note, I need to go join my family. Merry Christmas!_

She replies back with a handful of emojis; the Santa, Christmas tree, angel, and pretty girl stand out amongst the others.

I head downstairs and take two steps into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. I open the refrigerator door to grab the half n half and I am shutting the door when Alice appears out of nowhere and scares me half to death.

"Nice jammies," she says, eyeing up my reindeer.

"Fuck, Alice!" I yell as the half n half falls out of my hand and onto the floor, the creamer spilling out onto the hardwood. I grab Mom's dishtowels to clean up the mess before it leaks across the whole kitchen. I turn to finish making my coffee once the mess is cleaned up and my heart begins to slow down to a normal rhythm.

"On edge much?" She asks and I can tell by the tease in her tone that she is going to enjoy the hell out of seeing my secret exposed.

"Who hides behind refrigerator doors? Are you twelve?" I take my first sip and already start to feel like a better person.

"I'm not the only one who hides around here. I may hide around doors but you hide around Bella Swan."

I shush her and look over my shoulders.

"Not for long. I'm going to tell Emmett soon. Tomorrow."

Her eyes widen, "Can I be there for that please?"

I shake my head profusely. "Absolutely not. And please, I beg you, don't say anything to anyone. This is still really new and we don't want to ruin anything."

I watch the smile make its way onto her face, the smile you use when you see two kittens cuddling or some shit like that, "We? You're a 'we'? "

"Yeah," I say, smiling into my coffee. "We're a 'we.'"

My sister has always been the kind of person to hug people vehemently against their will, and this time when she hugs me I don't resist as much as I normally do.

"Oh, Edward's up! Time to open presents, Carlisle!" My mom comes into the kitchen with her robe tied around her waist and over her pajamas. "Why are you two hugging?"

We back away from each other like we have cooties. "I'm just really glad Edward found his coffee," Alice says with a sniffle and heads towards the Christmas tree to the mound of presents sitting beneath it.

The rest of the morning, or afternoon, I should say, passes with laughs and hugs and lots and lots of coffee on my part. After we open presents, we head back into the kitchen to make our annual Christmas breakfast and the rest of the day is spent trying on new clothes, toying with new pieces of technology, and snoozes here and there. Having already spent the early hours of Christmas morning with Bella, and the rest of the day with my family, at night I am able to slip into my covers with a clear head.

 _Can I see you tonight?_ Bella asks, and I wish there were a way to make it possible but I want to do things right with her and having her sneak in and out doesn't sit well with me.

 _I don't like sneaking you around here. You're worth more than that._

She replies with a winking emoji, _You can come to my window_.

I scoff before answering her. _Pssh, there's a better chance of Melissa Etheridge coming to your window than me. No way am I sneaking around your room with Emmett and your dad down the hall._

 _Then we need to come up with a way for us to see each other._

 _I am. I'm telling Emmett tomorrow._

 _And after that you can see me?_

 _If Emmett doesn't kill me first._

 _He won't_.

We say goodnight a few minutes later but I don't roll over in my bed and go to sleep like I want to. Instead I send a text to a different Swan than the one I was just talking to.

 _Kline's tomorrow?_

Emmett responds shortly after. _Hell yeah. 4:00 good? Rose is dragging me to some after Christmas sales at the mall._

 _Yup. 4 works for me._

I glance at the clock, figuring that if I'm going to hell, I may as well do it right.

xxxx

 **A/N: Uh, oh tomorrow is the day with Emmett! Thanks so much for your reviews and recs! More to come with these two, I think 2-3 more chapters before we say farewell!**


	8. Chapter 8

Everyone has a specific way to deal with stress. Some turn to the bottom of a liquor bottle, some turn to recreational use of the pharmaceutical variety, others find companionship in others.

I like to run.

The buzz and thrill of the holidays over the past few days have left me exhausted but after making plans with Emmett to meet up for drinks, my mind is wound up and after a restless sleep and tossing and turning in the early hours of the morning, I text Bella to tell her that I am starting our morning run a few hours earlier than planned. The sun is just starting to make its daily appearance, filling the sky and its residents of Forks with hopes of a sunny day.

No rain, shine, blizzard, or hurricane can keep me off of the trails this morning as my anxiety levels are sky high in anticipation of my impending conversation with Emmett. I spent the night imagining all different scenarios of how this could go down today and in the end I'll be as ready as I'm going to be no matter how much I dwell on it. If he wants to fight, I'll fight. I mean, I'll try. An average guy has a chance of beating a grizzly bear, right?

If he wants to talk it out, I'll talk it out. If he wants to ignore me, then I guess I'll be able to do that, too. It would be naive of me to think that he is going to pat me on the back and say congratulations and order a celebratory beer for us, but it would also be completely out of character for Emmett to try to kill me. We've been friends for so long that I really do think that we have squabbled over everything there is to squabble about over the years, and we've only ever had one physical fight, but that's what Fantasy Football can do to friendships sometimes.

My thoughts are still scattered as I'm sitting on my bed tying my shoes when Bella answers me back, my phone lighting up my dark room. I told her I was starting early and that I would loop around and pick her up when she was up and ready but I guess my message to her had woken her up. I pick it up once I'm finished with my shoes, reading her reply quickly as I reach to grab a fleece to throw over my Under Armor. She said she'd be ready in twenty so that would give me time to do a quick lap around the neighborhood before scooping her up and heading out onto our path.

One step outside and I could see my breath coming out of my mouth, grateful for the new heated gloves that Alice had bought me for Christmas. The tricky part about running outside in winter is finding that middle ground of comfort in gear; I always start my runs cold and frigid but always end my runs covered in sweat but I think that for today's run, no heat or chill can distract me from my worries.

As I begin my trudge, finding a pace that matches my inner turmoil, I know what the bottom line is, and it has nothing to do with Emmett, but rather Bella.

If _Emmett_ hates the idea of Bella and I together, if her _parents_ hate the idea of Bella and me together, if _both_ of our parents and our families hate the idea, would it matter? Would I be able to look Bella in the eye and walk away from her? Fly back home to Chicago with a wave goodbye and leave her here?

I know the answer as I run up near our houses and spy her jogging in place on her porch, ready to meet me at this ungodly hour. I watch her as she heads down her front steps, expertly avoiding that fucking flowerpot, her dark hair bouncing on the top of her head while her ears are covered in a purple Under Armor headband, and the answer is a resounding hell no.

There is absolutely no way that I can say goodbye to her. There is no way that I can let something like this slip through my fingers. Some people wait their whole lives to find someone that wakes them up from their humdrum life, someone who ignites a fire in their heart and a purpose in their souls. Some people never get to experience this kind of love and -

 _Love?_

"Weren't you giving me shit for waking you up at 8:00 in the morning for a run?" Bella asks the sleep in her voice still partially audible but she's smiling at me anyway. If we weren't in front of our houses running the risk of getting caught, I would kiss her right now.

"Sorry, I just couldn't sleep. I didn't want to wake you." We begin our run together, each of us already in sync with the others' steps. Our feet crunch loudly on the snow underneath our feet. The sound is comforting, definitely added to that soundtrack of mine.

"It's fine, I don't mind waking up early for a run." I see her shrug out of the corner of my eye.

"A morning run is the only thing you like waking up early for?"

She takes a second to think before counting off on her fingers, never losing her balance as we continue running. "A run. Getting a good spot at the beach. Coffee."

"Hmm, all good reasons, I suppose."

"What about you? What's worth dragging your ass early out of bed?"

"While I do enjoy all of those things you said, I can also get the same amount of enjoyment out of all of them without getting up early. So I guess the question isn't what is worth it, but rather who is worth it?"

"Okay, I'll bite," Bella agrees reluctantly but I hear the playfulness of her tone. She must be on to me. "Your dad?"

I tilt my head to one side, "If he's letting me borrow one of his cars."

She pretends to think again. "Your mom?"

"If she's giving me leftovers to take home." I reply.

"Alice?"

"If we were back in high school and she was doing my Algebra homework for me."

"Hmm, I wonder who then?"

"Come here, I'll show you."

And I do show her, pulling her in to finally kiss her again. Her mouth is warm and inviting and it doesn't take long for the heat between us to threaten to melt the snow around us. She's breathless when she talks again.

"Remind me to wake you up early more often," she says, kissing me one last time before heading further on our trail. She could wake me up early any day if she did things like that.

"What about Emmett? Would you wake up early for him?" Bella asks. It had been a few minutes since we resumed our jog, and we were making our way into thick forestry surrounding the paths around us.

I take a minute to answer her. "As crazy as your brother is, he's the brother I've never had. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for him. Except for one thing."

"I know." Of course she knows, and she stops running to look at me and I pull her in to me. We stand in the middle of the green trees and white snow, our breaths coming out in heavy puffs.

"I can't give you up."

"I'm telling you now, Cullen, you're stuck with me."

I kiss her again, not able to get enough of her.

When I think there's no more air in me to continue, I pull away from her and hold her face between my hands. "Where else am I gonna go?"

xxxx

"I figured I'd tell him at a public place. You know, witnesses."

We finished our run a little while ago and decided to stop for coffee at a little deli not too far from home. It is perfect for the weather, the mood and my nerves.

She takes a small sip of her coffee before putting it down on the table in front of us. "I don't care how you tell him. He just needs to know. I'll tell him if that would make things easier for you."

I shake my head and squeeze her hand. "No, no. I need to tell him."

"So what happens next? After you tell him?"

"What happens next..." I take my hat off my head, running my hands through my hair. I look at her with a smile, "What happens next is no more hiding. No more sneaking you over in the middle of the night. No more looking over my shoulder all the time. "

"I can get used to that." She's smiling again and pulling me in for another kiss, and for a second neither of us care who sees us.

"I also have to take you out on a real date and not a little deli by the side of the road." I say once we make our way back outside the deli and onto the sidewalk. We're sipping our coffee and casually strolling back home.

"Hey, I love this place!"

"I like it, too, but it wasn't what I had in mind for our first date."

The walk to our houses is over too soon and I already hate the fact that we have to separate so soon. I see Chief Swan pulling out of his driveway and he honks twice at us as he heads into work. Bella turns to me once her dad has vanished down the street.

"Well, I guess I'm kind of like you in a way. It doesn't matter where I go or what I do, but who I choose to spend my time with is the only thing that matters to me."

xxxx

I am lounging on the couch watching a movie with Alice when Emmett texts me to tell me he's ready to head out to Kline's. After our run, Bella and I separated, each of us heading inside our houses with a nervous ball of energy in our stomachs. It was kind of like finals week during college where you're so excited for the year to be over and ready to just relax after working your ass off all year, but you know you have a hell of a week to get through before you can get there. You say your prayers and hope to God for a miracle to get you through it, and that is kind of how I feel as I gather my things to meet him. I make sure I have my jacket and phone and I say goodbye to Alice like it's the last time I'll ever see her, and I head out the door towards his house, like I'm walking the plank and about to jump into unchartered waters.

In a way, I kind of am.

"Hey man, I'll drive." Emmett says as he heads down his driveway. I nod, thankful, because I'm not sure if my nerves will cause me to stay on the road or careen off into a ditch. I try not to sneak a look at the Swan house, knowing that if I see Bella peeking out through the curtains I'll lose my cool.

I've never been a nervous guy. Ever! Who was the guy in charge of our Senior Prank? This guy. Who was the guy who scored the winning three point shot against the kids on the Rez? This guy. So my shaking hands and sweaty palms are something new to me and in an attempt to hide them, I shove my hands in the pockets of my jacket and shiver.

"You cold?" Emmett asks, turning the heat up in the car. I mumble something about the heated gloves that Alice bought me and I wonder when I became such a pussy. At this point I'm almost afraid to play pool once we get to Kline's in fear that my general nervousness and clumsiness will have someone other than me getting killed tonight.

"I'll be fine once I have a beer or two," I say. He nods and whistles his agreement, and we fill the car with easy conversation once I calm myself back down. Being best friends, Emmett and I never run out of things to talk about, and this car ride is no different. In no time Emmett is pulling his car into a parking spot at the bar, and it's not as busy as I thought it would be. I recognize some of the crowd in there, and after a few minutes of small talk, Emmett and I make our way over to the bartender and order our first round of drinks. We sit at the bar for a while, watching football and talking to Peter, the bartender, about the upcoming playoffs. I feel my phone buzz in my pocket but I am too afraid to pull it out and see who it is in case Emmett sees it before I tell him about Bella and me. I tell myself that once I have a free minute I'll check so for now my phone is burning a hole through my jeans.

After two more beers we head over to the pool table, and I think about how the last time I was here over Thanksgiving and I spent the night watching Bella from across the room, already hooked but not even really knowing or admitting it. It was just over a month ago and even though so much has happened in the time between then and now, it feels like yesterday.

"How was shopping with Rose?" I say at some point, trying to remember what the prize is here. Bella is my end game and I would prefer tonight to go smoothly rather than bumpy so I try to pull myself together.

Emmett shrugs, getting us our pool sticks and chalking up. He gets the coin out of his pocket and we call it in the air. "Not as crowded as I thought it would be. We have our engagement photos next week so we had to buy similar outfits or some shit."

He won the toss, so I take the time to rack them and line up the balls in their correct spots, tightening as hard as I could before moving away and letting Emmett line up his shot.

I take a sip of my beer, "You're going to be matching?"

He doesn't look up from his shot but says, "Not matching. I said similar, douchebag." He rams the pool stick forward, and we watch as the balls fly around the table before some land in the pockets. "Just you wait. Some girl is going to come around and when you get a boner over the sales and coupons at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I am going to laugh my ass off."

I choke on my beer and he slaps my back a few times. Eventually I start to laugh and shake my head at him.

"Who says boner these days, anyway?"

He's chuckling too, "Whatever, Bro. I just can't wait to give you shit."

"You'll be too busy fighting me for the coupon to give me shit."

"Maybe. Those twenty percent off coupons are pretty awesome, gotta admit."

"I've never even been inside a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in my life."

"What! You're missing out, man!" Emmett is staring at me incredulously, and he's suddenly looking around the bar in earnest. "Here, we gotta find you a girl tonight so you can go there and get the full experience."

I'm laughing but mildly panicking that I'll end up with Emmett and some random chick at Bed, Bath and Beyond tomorrow. "Is that what the 'Beyond' is all about?"

"Maybe." He's staring seriously into space, and this is one of the many things I love about him. He's the best guy to joke around with and the best guy to have your back, one of the most loyal friends to ever have. I sigh in fear of losing him by gaining his sister.

Emmet's voice interrupts my train of thought. "I'm surprised that Angela hasn't taken you."

 _Fuck, did I not tell him?_ "No, she didn't. We're not together anymore, though." It's my turn so I bend over the rail to line up my shot, hoping the shake of my pool stick goes unnoticed.

"What? When did that happen?" He sounds genuinely concerned because that's just the kind of guy he is.

"A few weeks ago, little after Thanksgiving." I shrug my shoulders, aiming for nonchalance. I continue to run the table, pouring my focus into pocketing all of the balls. Soon enough, I win and Emmett is racking the balls for me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asks, taking his time to tighten the balls for my break.

"I was just preoccupied, I guess. Work, Christmas, just a lot of distractions."

"What happened?"

This is it. The moment of truth. The moment when the shit hits the fan. I take a deep breath and with all my might, line up the white cue ball and hit it so hard with my stick that I can't keep track of where the balls are going across the table. I look over at Emmett and take the jump, terrified of what will happen next.

"Em, you ever wake up and one minute you're fine and the next everything is completely different?" I take my next shot and miss, unsurprisingly.

"Like amnesia?"

I can feel my frustration rising. "No, not like amnesia. At all. You're up."

"I don't follow." He says, looking away from me and back onto our game. "I'm low? You're high?."

I nod and he lines up his shot.

I continue, "I went to bed one night totally into Angela. She was funny; she worked in a law firm not far from my office. She wasn't clingy -"

"Sex good?" Emmett interrupts, and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, not where I was going with this conversation, but yeah."

"Go on." He makes a motion to continue.

"Thanks," I say, shaking my head ruefully. "Anyway, I woke up one morning and realized that my feelings for Angela weren't enough."

"I get it, man." He's nodding his head like he understands me completely. I cheer up internally, hoping that maybe this won't go as horrible as I think.

"You do?" I ask. It's my shot again so I walk around the table trying to measure my best options.

"Yeah, but here's my next question: Who is she?" Emmett asks, leaning against his pool stick.

"Who is who?" _Fuck._

"The other girl. Come on, Edward. You're telling me that this Angela chick is cool as hell and the sex is good. No guy turns down sex on the regular unless he thinks there's a chance he can have better sex with someone else."

This is so not the way I wanted to have this conversation. There's no easy segue when you're talking about better sex and then talking about me dating his sister.

I shake my head hard and adamant. "That's not true. And there's no sex being had with the other girl." If I can scream that at him multiple times without sounding crazy, I would so do it.

"Told you, you dick! I knew there was some other girl." He's happy, looking as if he found out who stole the cookies from the cookie jar.

"Shh, shh, I think old James over there heard you and he's deaf."

Emmett turns to look at the man who frequents Kline's so much he practically lives here and then he turns back to me, "So? Who cares? Let me see a picture of her." He's holding his hand out for my phone and I shake my head quickly.

"No you can't, just give me a chance to -" I try to get it out there before his excitement takes over.

"Is she hot? She's gotta be if -"

It's now or never.

"Fuck, Emmett, it's Bella!"

"The fuck did you just say?"

We could chalk it up to bad timing, or we could chalk it up to the excitement of the conversation, but the second I slip out the words of my secret, Emmett's shot that he had been lining up comes full force, and instead of the cue ball hitting the intended target, Emmett's aim becomes skewed and the cue ball flies off the table, heading directly towards -

"Edward, watch out!"

Too late. All I see is the white of the ball before it clocks me right in the eye, causing me to fall backwards and my stick to sail across the room.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" I scream, clamping my hand over my eye.

Oh, it hurts. It hurts something fierce, but not enough to keep me down. I stand up, my hand still covering my eye, and I see Emmett walking towards me with a strange look on his face. It's a face I can't read, and that's odd for me, given that Emmett has the worst poker face I've ever seen. I don't give him a chance to get any closer before I charge him, both of us flying backwards onto the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hear Emmett yell, at this point both of us throwing punches and shoves in retaliation at the other. Unbeknownst to us, as the crowd gathers around us in whoops of entertainment and annoyance, Peter rolls his eyes and picks up the bar phone to call none other than the fucking chief of police.

xxxx

"Oh, Christ, not you two clowns," Chief Swan says as he makes his way out of his car in the Kline's parking lot, the crowd doing their best to dissipate back to where they came from but dying to see what is about to go down. Somehow Peter and this other guy, I don't even know who, managed to break Emmett and I apart and take us outside to separate and cool off. We are each sitting on a bench on either side of the sidewalk, Emmett spitting out blood from a cut on is his lip into the white snow between us, and me, holding a bag of ice to my eye that is already halfway to being swollen completely shut. I don't even need to look at it to know what color it's turning.

I eye the police car that Charlie got out of and I curse, "Fuck, I don't want to go to jail."

"We're not going to be arrested, Dickhead."

"Shut the fuck up Emmett, I wasn't talking to you -"

"You shut the fuck up, Cullen -"

"Ladies, how about you both shut the fuck up, eh?" Charlie Swan, Chief of Police, has made his way to us. He looks up at our two chaperones, the ones put in charge of making sure we don't hurt each other any more than we already have. "Gentlemen, thank you. I'll take it from here."

They nod in respect and give us both one last look before heading back inside.

"You two are back for a week and you're already fighting in bars?" He's standing in front of us, looking back and forth from one to the other, shaking his head in disapproval. "Do I even want to know what this about?"

"No," we say in unison, and for a second I'm thankful for the son of a bitch sitting on the bench opposite me. Only for a second though, my swollen eye reminds me.

Chief Swan chuckles, "Let's go then. Can I trust you to behave in the backseat together?"

"Dad, do we really have to ride in your car?"

"Yep, 'fraid so. It's the price you pay for being as stupid as you two look right now."

Begrudgingly, we rise from the benches and take a few steps forward when Chief Swan stops us, "Not so fast."

We turn around to see him ready with handcuffs and I hear Emmett curse loudly next to me.

"You're fucking joking, right?" He says, taking a minute to spit out a little more blood.

"Does it look like I'm joking? Turn around."

So we do and head into the cruiser, or the backseat I should say.

I've driven in the back of a police car before, but it was when we were eleven and thought we were cool as hell to have Emmett's dad drive us around, pretending to be bad guys. Right now, I can't sit low enough in my seat, hoping that only the top of my head is visible. Luckily it's dark outside but I guarantee that everyone in Forks already knows and that it's already posted somewhere on social media as we drive out of the parking lot.

I cringe inwardly, hating the fact that this whole thing happened the way it did. I was really hoping to be nervous for nothing and to be heading home happily to see Bella, but no, right now I'm sitting in the back of a police car with a former best friend and the father of the girl of my dreams, who is looking pretty fucking pissed, is the one driving us.

"Do I need to write a police report?" Chief Swan asks once we pull out of the parking lot.

"It depends. Do you write reports for people who shoot cue balls at people's faces?" I answer, the frustration of this situation getting the better of me.

"It was an accident! And maybe I would have told you that, if you didn't charge at me like a fucking bull in Spain!" Emmett is yelling again. "Why the fuck would you do that?"

"Bullshit it was an accident!"

"Dude, it was. Do you think it was a good idea to tell me about you and Bella right as I'm about to shoot?"

I swear, Emmett is the luckiest man on Earth at the moment because if I wasn't handcuffed in the back of a police car, I would have seriously killed him. He realizes what he said once he sees me glaring at him; maybe he can telepathically hear the ways I plan on torturing him for letting it slip in front of his dad. Bella's dad.

"Woah, hey. You and Bella?" Chief Swan is staring at me in the rearview mirror, or that's at least what it looks like out of the one functioning eye I have.

"Fuck you, man!" I yell at Emmett, trying to throw a fist in his general direction again but I'm stopped by the handcuffs behind my back. So I do the next best thing to him: I kick him, hard, numerous times against his legs. He curses back at me, this time his feet moving to kick my legs as well.

"I have engagement photos to take!" Emmett yells, getting one good swift kick in to my leg. "Dead leg!"

"Enough!" The sound of Chief Swan's raised voice stops our childish antics. He's pulled over to the side of the road but thank god his lights are off. "Do you see what you two look like right now?"

We pause and I briefly cast my eyes over the two of us in the backseat. Emmett is on his side, his legs and feet sprawled over my half of the seat, and I'm almost flat on my back, my feet dangerously close to his face.

We look ridiculous.

I sigh and try to maneuver myself back over to my side of the seat and Emmett does the same. We're silent for a few minutes, all three of us lost in thought.

Chief Swan runs a tired hand down his face, his eyes closed as he tries to understand. "Is it true, Edward? You and Bella?"

I sigh and nod slowly, knowing that as he stares at me and sees a black and blue and swollen eye that this does not bode well for me. "Yes, it's true. But it's not like what you think, Sir. I'm serious about her, Chief Swan. She is everything to me."

I sneak a glance over at Emmett through the darkness of the car but he doesn't look up. Chief Swan clears his throat.

"And Bella? Does she feel the same way?"

I can't hide the smile that makes its way to my face. "I think so, Sir."

The laughter from the Chief breaks the serious tension inside the car, and I have no idea what to do. Do I laugh with him even if I have no idea what he's laughing about? Do I risk looking over at Emmett?

I decide to sit there and do nothing, and maybe that's the best option, considering that any movement to my face is causing some significant pain. After a few minutes of laughing, Chief Swan wipes the tears from his eyes, and pulls onto our street. This time he decides to put on the flashing lights.

"Well boys, if you think explaining this to me was hard, try explaining this to your mothers."

And for the first time in a while, Emmett and I look over at each other, bruised and bloodied, with a look of genuine fear on our faces. In all my thoughts of Emmett and Chief Swan, I completely overlooked what Esme and Renee would have to say about all of this. I'm in the middle of thinking of just how royally fucked I am when Chief Swan opens up the backdoors for us and we climb out humiliated.

My parents and Alice are running out of their house at the same time as Renee and Bella are running out of theirs, with Rose fresh on their heels.

"Did you do this to him?" Bella is yelling at Emmett as she appears at my side, her concerned face eyeing up my eye.

"What's the matter with you boys?" My mother shouts, looking back and forth between us.

Chief Swan is laughing again as he holds his hands up in the air.

He turns to my dad. "Carlisle, we have to pay up," he says, pointing towards my mom and Renee. "They were right about Bella and Edward."

We all turn to our parents and watch in horror as our mothers jump in the air in excitement and our fathers open their wallets and each hand over a twenty dollar bill to their wives.

"We're fine, by the way," Emmett says, pointing towards me and him as our parents disappear inside the Swan house. "So glad you're all concerned."

Rose drags Bella back inside the house, and despite throwing a couple of concerned looks over her shoulder, she shuts the door and it's just Emmett and I out in the dark, the cold actually feeling good after our night in the depths of hell. After a brief moment I hesitate before turning to talk to him.

"Look, man. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." I was genuinely sorry for putting my hands on him but I was still so fucking pissed at the way he outed Bella and I to Chief Swan. No harm no foul, apparently, but it is not the way I planned on telling Bella's dad about us.

"You didn't even hear me out." He says, and this time he is the one with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"I know, I know. I was just so ready for you to want to fight me that I didn't even think before I ran at you. I'm sorry."

He's laughing before wincing, bringing his hand up to his split lip. "You thought I would fight you?"

"It crossed my mind, yes."

And just like that, we're laughing again, both of us shaking our heads at the horrible situation we put ourselves in. He speaks once we're done laughing. "I'm sorry, too. I mean, your eye is looking pretty scary right now."

I wave a hand in the air in dismissal. "Could be worse."

"I guess. When did this happen?"

He's talking about Bella and I, and I don't say anything for a moment, still wanting to keep the tiny details of Bella and I to myself. "It just happened, man. Neither of us planned it."

"This is my sister, Edward. She's not just some -"

"Emmett, remember our senior year of college when we all decided to take a camping trip at the end of the semester before we graduated?"

He nods, "Yeah, of course."

"And we were about to head out but you called us and said you couldn't go? The trip that you spent all year planning that you bailed on the night before?"

"Yeah." His voice and answers are becoming quieter now as he is off in deep thought, eyes staring down at his feet. He knows where I'm going with this.

"Why did you bail, Em?" I prod him, knowing that he'll understand.

He looks up at me with a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth, "Rose. I met her the night before."

"And when I was so fucking pissed at you, so mad that I was about to kill you for ditching us, what did you tell me?"

Emmett nods in understanding, "I told you to have a great trip but I couldn't go with you. I needed to be with Rose."

"Well, this is it for me, man. Bella is my camping trip. She's the 'Beyond' to my Bed, Bath, and Beyond."

After a few moments, Emmett shakes his head and looks at me. I have yet to see what I look like after our brawl at Kline's but looking at Emmett; I fear what I see once I look at a mirror.

"Shit, dude. I just thought you had a thing for her, I didn't know you're in love."

His statement takes me aback and I'm unprepared for the slap in the face it brings me.

"Is it safe to come out?" I hear her voice, and my stomach does that thing again, and my heart begins to beat faster.

 _Well, I'll be damned._

Bella walks slowly out to meet us in the driveway, unsure if Emmett and I are allies or enemies. Definitely allies. Always allies.

She is standing with us on the driveway and Emmett leans over to hug her. I almost feel like I'm intruding but they break apart before I can excuse myself.

"I'm sorry B, for hurting your man. But really? Cullen?" He asks, moving aside so she can come over to where she wants to be. She snuggles her way into my side, and somewhat painfully I lift my arm to slide her closer.

"Really," she says, leaning into my waist, and when she looks up at me with a beaming smile, I can't help but lean down and plant a kiss on her mouth. I pull back a second later, wincing from the contact. Bella places her fingers on my lips and tries to find the source of the pain. I hear Emmett gagging in the background.

"Ugh, this is going to take some getting used to," he says and shakes his head. He pauses, looks back and forth between the two of us one last time before holding his hand out for a fist bump. I gladly return the favor. "We'll talk tomorrow," he says before disappearing inside.

"Do you know how ridiculous you look?" Bella says and starts pushing us towards my house. I'm limping from the dead leg Emmett gave me in Chief Swan's police car.

"You're worth it," I say, pausing to lean down and kiss her again. "Now get me inside and take care of me, woman."

Xxxx

 **A/N: Next up, their first date. Winding it down, folks. Only two more to go. Can't thank you all enough for your awesome reviews. They make me smile :)**


	9. Chapter 9

_You up for the diner?_

I hear the text from Emmett some time mid-morning but I have to work up the energy to reach over and answer him. My head is pounding and with one eye, I see the aspirin Bella has left for me on my nightstand next to a bottle of water. I moan in appreciation and guzzle the water and aspirin quickly, finishing the bottle and plopping my head back down on my pillows. I feel much better than what I felt when I had briefly woken up overnight, the room spinning around me.

Eventually, after our parents had a good laugh over some drinks about the escapades of their children, my dad made his way over to check me out to make sure I didn't have a concussion or anything serious like that. Luckily, I did not, but I still feel like shit and was expected to after getting hit with a cue ball to the face. Bella had slipped out sometime during the night after I had drifted off to sleep, beyond exhausted from my night with Emmett, both mentally and physically. We had spent the night going back and forth between binge watching the latest seasons on Netflix and tending to my battle scars. It was a literal Netflix and Chill kind of night and not the kind we were hoping for.

Regardless of the physical evidence I'm currently sporting on my face, the night had ended exactly the way we had wanted it to. Everything is out in the open now and already I can feel the stress leave my body in waves. Maybe it was just me, but I had gotten the impression that everyone was okay with Bella and I being together. Not that it would have stopped either of us from continuing our relationship, but it sure as hell makes things a lot easier now.

Slowly, I pick my head up from my pillows and reach over to grab my phone to answer Emmett back.

 _Probably not, man. I'm hurting today._

 _You and me both. Nothing that some good ol' diner grease can't fix._

 _Give me ten._

Not needing much persuasion, ten minutes later I am putting on a pair of sunglasses to hide my eyes and a beanie to hide the rat nest that is my hair, stepping out into the day. Emmett's car is warming up in their driveway and I am about to slip into the passenger seat when Bella emerges from the other side of the car.

"I was wondering how he got his car back," I say, nodding towards the car. She brushes some snow off of her hands.

"Yeah, I had a feeling you weren't going to be up for running this morning so I ran down to Kline's and drove it back home for him."

"Yes, definitely not up for running today."

"I can only imagine why not." She purrs, looping her arms around my waist and peering up at me.

"Ask this guy," I say, pointing towards Emmett as he comes out of the house and down the driveway to meet us.

"So how is this going to work?" He says, coming to a stop in front of us and pointing back and forth between Bella and me. "Am I going to have to call in advance to schedule time to chill with you guys, or what?"

Bella and I laugh, leaning in towards each other like magnets into an embrace. "Guess so," Bella says, standing on her tip toes to give me a small peck on the lips. It's not enough for either of us and since there are no secrets anymore, she kisses me again and I dive into it with her, pulling her closer and sliding my hands lower and lower down her back.

"So while you two do that, I'm just going to sit here and starve to death," Emmett says, getting into the driver's side door of his car. A second later the window on the passenger side slides down. "And Edward, you can move your hands about six inches north while in my presence."

I laugh and flip him the finger but never make an attempt to remove my hands, especially with how sweet she's looking underneath them in her little spandex running pants. "I'll call you when I get back?"

She nods, "How about that date?"

"Tonight? You're willing to go out in public with me looking like this?" I pull away from her enough to swipe the sunglasses off of my face. She winces at the sight of my face and shakes her head.

"On second thought, we can always go out another night."

"Soon," I say, kissing her one last time before heading into Emmett's car.

xxxx

"That person's staring. So is that guy over there." We're sitting in a booth at the diner over a table full of the best food a diner can offer. I feel hungover even though I barely drank yesterday, the events of the day taking its toll on me.

"Of course they're staring. Have you seen us?" Emmett replies mid bite of his steak n' eggs.

We do make quite the interesting pair, with Emmett's lip swollen and cut down the middle and the fact that I'm wearing sunglasses even though we're inside the building.

"None of this would have happened if you didn't hit me with that damn ball."

Emmett shakes his head and points a finger at me. "No one told you to run at me like that, Usain Bolt."

"I panicked. I don't know, man, you had this strange look on your face. I was just on the defensive."

He looks at me, perplexed. "Strange face? Yeah, because I thought you died. You took a cue ball right to the fucking head, dude."

We burst out laughing and if the images I have of us rolling around the floor at Kline's are funny in my head, I can only imagine what it would look like to a stranger. I'm sure someone has a video of it somewhere and I would pay good money to see it.

Once we stop laughing I clear my throat and become serious. "I guess I deserved it, though. I should have told you sooner about Bella. I'm sorry."

He shakes his head, dismissing me and takes a sip of his coffee. He puts it back down on table. "It's fine. Really." He laughs ruefully, "I probably would have ruined it for you guys if you told me any earlier than you did."

"I was pretty close to ruining it a few times myself. I've never been so out of sorts."

I proceed to tell him about the time between Pie Night and my trip back home, telling him how Shelly pretty much held me together once she noticed my world start to fall apart. That reminds me, I should probably let her know I'm still alive. She'd appreciate the story. We finish up our meal with our normal comfortable banter and head to the register to pay once we have stuffed ourselves to the brim. Definitely have to run an extra mile or two to burn this one off.

We're getting back into the car to head home when he puts his hand out to me to shake. "Not that it would have mattered anyway, but you have my approval. I mean, what better guy out there to keep an eye out for my sister than my best friend, right?"

"Thanks, Em. That means a lot."

"Just spare me the details. All of them."

"Will do."

xxxx

When I step foot into my house, I hear rumblings from the kitchen and follow the noise. I find my mother, Alice and Bella all hunched over Alice's phone at the kitchen table, giggling to themselves.

"Interrupting anything, am I?" I say and Alice puts her phone away immediately.

"Nope. Not at all," she says.

"I find that highly unlikely."

"How was breakfast?" my mom asks, and I can tell that even though Emmett and I ended last night on good terms that she is still worried. I squeeze her shoulder as I walk past her to sit next to Bella at the table.

"Great," I say with a smile towards Bella, letting her know too that all is well in our world.

"We knew it would be," my mom remarks. "You're all good kids."

"Maybe not all of the time." And with that, I lean down and scoop Bella up out of the chair and over my shoulder, whisking her away towards my bedroom, her squeals of laughter only driving me faster to shut the door with a bang.

xxxx

We decide to hell with what my face looks like and make plans for our date the following day. The third day after Christmas means that things are relatively getting back to normal, at least until a few days until we celebrate the New Year. Our parents are all back to work, Emmett and Rose leave in the morning to head back to their house for a few days and Alice left sometime last night for a couple of days of work. It's finally us again, no pressure from anyone else or any work related stress, just us.

We decide to head into Port Angeles for the day with no set plans other than dinner reservations at 7:00 at one of the restaurants on the pier. It's definitely cold today, the chill blowing off of the water around us but the spark between us keeping us warm and happy. We can barely keep our hands off of each other and it's been like this since the minute I picked her up this afternoon, the atmosphere crackling with anticipation of what our future will bring us.

The crowds at the malls and other surrounding stores aren't as bad as I thought it would be, and it gives me more time to appreciate the moments, the small things that no one will remember but us. The way her dad shook my hand this afternoon before we left, and the way that for one small second I wasn't Edward Cullen, Emmett's best friend since he was five, but I was Edward Cullen, the guy falling hopelessly for his daughter.

Today is a day full of the small moments and I know that I'll be old and gray and still remember the way her hand reached for mine in the car on the way here to Port Angeles, and the way the world seemed to fall into place at that very moment. I'll never forget seeing our reflection on the windows of the small shops that litter the streets here, and the way we look at each other like no one else matters.

As I stare at my phone, looking at the selfie she took of us on the pier with the dark blue of the icy waters below us, we look made for each other. I thank God that it is overcast so I have a good reason to wear my sunglasses.

You know the deal with bruises, that they look worse before they look better, and I find this is the truth in my case. Alice tried to school me on proper cover up technique but I shot her down vehemently, feeling my manhood threatened at the thought of both Bella and I wearing makeup on our first date.

She's beautiful today, letting her dark hair flow down to the middle of her back in thick waves, the top of her head covered in a winter gray knitted hat. Her skin glows, some parts rivaling the whiteness of the snow around us while her cheeks are flushed light pink from the cold air. I try my best to keep her warm, sometimes forgetting we are out in public as I surround myself in her, in her kiss, in her touch.

With time on our hands and no place to be, we are strolling casually throughout the small town, pointing out things that catch our interest and sharing a warm soft pretzel when we stumble across the center of town and a small crowd gathering nearby. Curious, we make our way to a clearing and that's when we see the outdoor ice skating rink. It is surrounded by clear twinkling lights and I know before she asks me that she's already decided we're going to give it a try.

"Come on, I haven't done this in years!" She's pulling me towards the line for the skate rentals.

"Where were you during our ice hockey years?" I ask, referring to the couple of seasons when Emmett and I and a couple of other kids from the neighborhood made our own ice hockey rink in one of our backyards. The rink itself was pathetic with barely enough room for more than three of us to be on it at the same time, but man, did we all have a hell of time taking shots at the goal. By the time we were finished, we all became relatively decent skaters and even though it feels like yesterday, I know it's been years since I've stepped on the ice, as well.

"Watching you guys from the window, most likely." Bella says as she's tying up her laces, and I watch as the skates hug her ankles and calves, my eyes traveling up and admiring the view. I'm dying to run my hands up the length my eyes have traveled.

"Catch me?" She says in trepidation, with one skate and then the other gliding onto the ice. I follow her, letting her hold on to me as tight as she can, knowing that if she stumbles, I stumble, too.

"Always." I reply.

xxxx

We're fifteen minutes early for our dinner reservation so we find a quiet place at the bar and order a round of drinks to pass the time. We're sitting sideways in our seats, our legs brushing against each other now and then with the swivel of the chairs. There is a warm fireplace on in the room, creating an ambience that has our heads dipped low towards each other. I sneak in a kiss or two before our table is called and I am never denied what I want from her. Bella is always equally ready to return the favor and it is so easy to get caught up in our magic that has lived long after Christmas.

The sun has disappeared for the night, the evening darkening like a quilt over the sky above us as we head out of the restaurant, fingers intertwined. We're standing on the porch of the restaurant, the wind blowing the hair in front of her face and I don't know if I've seen anything so breathtaking in my life.

"I don't want this night to end," she whispers against my mouth, and before I can agree with her, I surrender my lips to hers in a battle I know I'll never win.

"I know," I say, my lips leaving hers to slowly trail them to her ear.

"Maybe it doesn't have to."

There's no question as to the meaning behind her words and when I look at her again this time, her eyes are looking over at a small, quaint bed and breakfast across the street.

I moan in defeat, rubbing my eyes before turning to respond. "Do you know what your dad will say when I fail to bring you home tonight?"

She's shaking her head and pulling my hands off of my face and back into hers. "Who cares about anybody else tonight? It's almost New Year's, Edward, and that means that you'll be back to Chicago before we know it. This is our night."

"Okay." I whisper, putting a finger underneath her chin and tilting her face so we're staring at each other, the passion between us humming its way to life, to a precipice that can no longer be ignored. "Our night."

And the night does belong to us, in every sense of the phrase.

We belong to each other, the sounds we make as we discover one another beneath the Christmas lights from our outside hotel balcony, the fire that burns between us as our skin touches and bodies sink into each other, the way she clings to the sheets and pulls at my hair when I finally taste her. All of it belongs to us and always will.

We are new promises and childhood memories, resolutions and old habits, finally seeing the beauty in the world that has always been there but neither of us ever seeing it until now.

"I can't stop." I'm panting as we continue to meet together, my head dipping to rest against her shoulder as I try to fight the impending fall. She moves us so we're facing each other, her legs wrapped tightly around my waist, her body rising and falling to match me in the middle. She places loose kisses on my mouth before she throws her head back again, her eyes closing.

"Don't ever," she manages to squeak out. I pull her back down to me, her mouth meeting mine in a kiss that is soon interrupted by one of her breathy moans. Every inch of her feels incredible beneath my fingertips, my mouth, my tongue. There is a soft glow of sweat on her body, and the feel of her slipping against me almost has me lose my resolve.

I can feel her start to tighten around me, the way her fingers frantically pull at my hair and down my back and back up again. I bring her face level with mine one more time, our eyes meeting briefly before she closes them again, and when she cries out my name in the dark, her voice almost hoarse in the throes of passion, I come undone.

I bring her body back down hard onto me, my fingers tangling in her hair as I wait for my breathing to return to normal. We cling to each other still, both of us frozen in time and place, our legs heavy as lead and shaky as Jell-O simultaneously.

I don't know how long we stay like that for or how long we remain silent, holding onto each other under the dim lights of the room, but eventually I turn to her and kiss her another long, lazy kiss. "Chicago is just a place. You'll always be home to me."

xxxx

 **A/N: I am so glad you all enjoyed Emmett and Edward's escapades. I sure had a fun time writing it. Unfortunately, I did not meet my goal of finishing by New Year's, and to make things worse, tomorrow I go back to work after a nice two weeks off. Which means, the last chapter will probably come out some time this weekend. Have a great week everyone and I'll see you soon!**


	10. Chapter 10

"Edward, are you asleep?" Bella's voice whispers into the semi-lit room, and I can feel her stretch beside me and the sheets loosen around us. With my eyes still closed, I reach around to pull her body back into mine.

"Yes."

She giggles and manages to sit up so she's leaning across my chest. She nudges me and I unwillingly open one eye and I see her staring at me, her chin on my chest and her hair flowing between us. She's whispering again, this time planting small kisses until they land on my mouth.

"Stay up. Watch the sunrise with me." Her voice is low and dripping with exhaustion but it's still a sound that leaves me hooked.

I groan and roll us over so she's on her back and I'm draped halfway across her, my arm encircling her waist. "We went to sleep an hour ago."

"Just a few minutes. Then we can go back to sleep."

I sigh loudly, acting as if I wouldn't have agreed to her wishes anyway, and she joyously slides us out of bed entangled in the sheets and blankets. Luckily our balcony has been cleaned of the snow and ice of the last few days because of course that is where she wants to sit, the cold air stinging my eyes and making me wish I tried a little harder to convince Bella to stay within the warm confines of our bed.

Not that Bella and I have been together long, but I already know and am well aware that she is quite possibly the most stubborn person I have ever met and that my protests would have fallen on deaf ears. We do a good job of shielding the chill, positioning ourselves on the patio chair so that she is on my lap and we are both snuggled under the blankets, our skin providing the most essential and necessary warmth. After the night we had last night, this is a position that we are not strangers to.

If I wasn't running on one hour of sleep, I could totally be that Joseph Gordon Levitt guy, you know that movie when after he spends the night with his girlfriend for the first time, he and a bunch of strangers break out in song and dance because all is great in the world?

That's the guy I am this morning, as I wait for the sun to rise with Bella in my arms, shivering softly and I don't know if it's from the temperature or from the electricity between us. I've gotten used to her over the last few hours, learning all of her secrets that only I get to hear from now until the end of time, if it were up to me. We're quiet as we sit wrapped up together, my fingers ghosting up her body in an effort to keep her as warm as I can, even though it's her crazy idea to be out here in the first place. We're quiet and reflective, both of us the best kind of tired there is, our eyes and bodies catching up to each other, in sync. I can feel myself start to drift off again but I hear her voice and it brings me back.

"Have you ever been to the Florida Keys?" Bella asks, her voice muffled from beneath the blankets.

I shake my head, "No."

"The sunsets and sunrises there are pretty amazing." She moves, positioning herself so she can see the sun in front of us, just beginning its daily performance on its earthly stage. I wrap my arms around her tightly, kissing the top of her head as the world around us slowly turns hues of pinks and oranges.

"This one isn't too bad, if you ask me."

"No, it's beautiful." She agrees and settles against my chest again.

I sigh and breathe her and the morning air in deeply in my lungs. "We'll have to go there one time. To the Keys."

"I'll go anywhere with you," Bella tells me, and the look in her eyes makes me believe her. We lean in to seal the deal, our lips meeting together slowly and languidly, swollen from hours of use. Her voice is heavy with sleep as she snuggles against me again. "Tell me about Chicago."

Her eyes are closed again so I dip deeper into our chair and close my eyes as well. I sigh, "I'm sure the sunrise there is just as nice, even though I've never stayed up all night to see it. Especially under circumstances such as these." She laughs softly somewhere beneath the blankets and wraps her arms around me. "There's this little restaurant down the street from my office that makes the best tiramisu. I'm sure your tiramisu would put them to shame, of course."

This gets her up but she's still sitting in my lap when she points a finger at me, "You haven't even tasted some of my best desserts."

I laugh loudly, "Pretty sure I did last night. Few times, actually."

Fuck yeah, I did. Best dessert ever. Hands down.

"Anyway. Go on." Bella replies, smirking but elbowing me in my side at the same time. I pull her back down to me and run my fingers through her hair.

"Okay, let's see. It's a city; there's always something to find that matches your mood, and if you want to get away from the hustle for a bit you can always get away. Oh, there's this bar I go to after work sometimes, in between my office and my apartment."

"Like Kline's?"

I shrug, "Just your typical sports bar. They have really good bar pies, though."

"Everything you've mentioned has involved food in some way."

"I'm not exactly the best in the kitchen so I don't really cook for myself a lot. I mean, you saw my Christmas Cookies."

"Yeah, they were severely lacking."

We laugh at my expense for a few minutes, both of us remembering my attempt to make a snowman with a green scarf around its' neck but instead of putting it on his neck, I accidently put it on his head making it look like a bandana. My Willie Nelson cookie, as everyone so wonderfully had named it, had made it to the Hall of Fame of cookie disasters and was never allowed to be eaten.

It remains frozen in time inside of my parent's freezer. Guarantee that fucker will make an appearance for all the remaining Christmases of my life.

"Is that a deal breaker for you? My baking skills?" I tease, both of us laughing as the sun rises in front of us and warms the air around us.

She's still laughing about my Willie Nelson cookie but she slows it down out of the kindness of her heart and wipes the corner of her eye. "I think some of your other skills will help balance that area out."

A comment like that distracts us both for a few minutes, the sun's heat not even coming close to what is brewing beneath our blankets. Again.

"So you're keeping me around for a while?" My lips are trailing across her cheek, down her jaw and to my favorite little place I found under her ear before her neck. I found out it's also one of her favorite places, too, and the sound she makes to greet my ears confirms my theories.

"I'm thinking so."

I stop and make her look at me, holding her face between my hands.

"You have no choice. I honestly don't think I would know how to live without you." I say this with all seriousness, the last two weeks we spent together and the three weeks before that flashing through my

mind.

"Chicago sounds really nice, Edward."

I run my fingers up and down her back, rhythmically creating a pattern that slowly lulls us back to the brink of sleep.

"It's almost perfect." I cut my words off there, knowing that Bella holds the one missing piece to make Chicago my own heaven on earth. I don't say it because right now, this is our heaven and I fear that if I don't hear the response I want to hear then this little dream world that we have created overnight will shatter and I know I'm not equipped to handle the aftermath.

We're about to drift off again when she speaks again. "Do you want to hear a story?"

"Always."

We close our eyes again and settle into each other.

"It wasn't too long ago, just this past September. It was early and I was soaking my feet in the canal behind our little cottage in Islamorada. I had just gotten back from my run -" Bella begins.

"How early?"

"You have to go early to beat the heat. Anyway, so I was cooling down in the canal, not really thinking about anything, really, and then the sun starts to rise. My friends were all inside still sleeping, our neighbors across the canal had probably just gone to bed, so it was just me."

"That sounds peaceful."

"It was. Lonely, too. There I was, watching what was easily the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen, and no one was there to enjoy it with me. Sure, I could have ran inside and told them all to wake up but it would have taken away from the moment."

"Is that why you decided to come home?"

She nods against me. "Part of it. I loved being away from home, away from the shadows of Forks. I loved my freedom and being able to do things on my own terms but I guess on some other level I knew it was time."

"I'm actually envious of you." I chuckle softly and she turns in my arms to face me.

"Envious? Of what?"

I sit up in the chair and bring the blanket up around her shoulders to her neck. "I left here when I was eighteen years old and I've been busting my ass ever since. Four years of undergrad, two years for my Master's, another two years of building up a clientele, and this was before I even thought about starting my own business. If I thought I worked hard before that, I had no idea what was in store for me."

"But look at you now."

"Yeah, look at me now. All those years and never once did I stop to enjoy a sunset or a sunrise. Before yesterday, I honestly would not have been able to tell you the last time I went ice skating or baked Christmas cookies or helped my parents and sister wrap presents for other people. But you have, Bella. You were able to slow the world down for a little while, and God knows we all could use a little bit of that in the world we live in today."

She's thoughtful for a second. "Yes, I'll never regret my experiences and I'll always be grateful for having such supportive people in my life but don't make it seem like what you've done over the past few years isn't admirable, either. You're thirty years old and you've managed to create a successful business from scratch without the help of anyone but yourself."

"Not necessarily myself. I think I'd be drowning in it if it weren't for Shelly."

"Your secretary?"

"Yeah, but she's more than that. Shelly took on a role that I didn't even know I was missing. She's my number one cheerleader over there. She was the one who told me to take a chance with you."

She smiles widely before nodding her head slowly in appreciation. "I owe her. Big time."

"That makes both of us. I don't know how she put up with me in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was unbearable to be around. It's all your fault."

We laugh.

"But look at us now. The world traveler and the workaholic. I wouldn't change a thing."

"I would. Only one thing, though." She's looking at me curiously.

"Let's go back to bed before we freeze out here."

As much as we tried to delay the inevitable, we ended up leaving our perfect and blissful sanctuary a little after noon, stopping to grab lunch in town before we headed back home. Everyone would probably give us shit for not coming back last night, but as we pull into my driveway, we cannot care less about anyone or anything outside of our little bubble.

I hate leaving her, even for a second, but I guess a change of clothes is a necessity, considering we hadn't planned an overnight stay and we had no choice but to put our clothes back on from the night before. We say our goodbyes, knowing that we will be together again as soon as the real world allows.

The house is empty when I step inside, both my parents at work and Alice back home. It isn't long before I'm dressed into a pair of sweats and sliding into my bed and into a dead sleep.

xxxx

"You still flying back on Tuesday?" I have my phone cradled against my ear as I fold the last of my laundry and place it into my suitcase. I nod as if Shelly can see me.

"Yep. I'll be back in the office bright and early on Wednesday morning."

"That makes me really happy." I can hear her excitement dripping through the phone.

I laugh and reach for another pile of clothes. "Aw, come on. You've had two weeks off of work. I'm sure you're bored by now."

"Bored? You call lounging on a beach chair in eighty degree weather boring?"

I shake my head. "I guess not. I wouldn't know though; we've been covered in snow here for over a week now."

I hear her whistle on her end of the line. "Better you than me, Darlin'. I'm sure there's a ton of snow waiting for us back home, too." As if packing my suitcase isn't depressing enough, the reality of it hits me deeper with each ticking second as I picture the streets of the city covered in gray slush.

"Most likely. It was a pretty big storm that was making its' way across the country."

Shelly laughs, "I bet I know how you occupied your time."

And as always, Shelly Cope would be correct. Bella and I found many ways to occupy our time over the past week since our first date and there were none that I would be willing to share with Shelly. I think even she would blush at the way we shared our time together.

At one point over the last few days Bella had wondered if it would always be this way, always so consuming and at times overwhelming. All I could say, as she lay beneath me in the dark with only the moonlight guiding our way, was that I sure as hell hoped so.

"All thanks to you, Shelly." I chuckle and look around my room, making sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Tomorrow is my last day here in Forks before leaving early the following morning to catch my flight back home. I already decided how I want to spend my last day here and not one second of it is devoted to packing so I am doing it now so I can soak up everything Forks tomorrow.

"Me? What did I do?" Shelly asks surprisingly.

"You pushed me when I doubted myself. There was never a time in my life when I couldn't go to my parents or my sister or Emmett for advice until a few weeks ago and you saw what it was doing to me." I turn at the sound of my door opening, and Bella gives me a small smile when she sees me on the phone. A wave of emotion floods through me and I pause before closing my eyes and finishing my speech to Shelly. "I appreciate it more than you know," I say and watch Bella turn my covers down and rummage for the remote. I bet she's already deciding what we're watching on Netflix for the evening.

"Oh, dear Lord. This girl has turned you into such a mush! I need to meet her."

I laugh, "She'd love to meet you, too."

"Bella would have to come here, though. I am not leaving one cold place to go to another cold place."

"I think we can make that happen." _I know we can_.

"I like this new Edward. And it being New Year's Eve, the timing could not be more perfect."

"Yeah, Yeah. Happy New Year, Shelly. And thank you."

"You're welcome, Edward. Happy New Year."

We hang up and I toss my phone onto my nightstand, zipping my suitcase before joining Bella under the covers. Our parents didn't blink an eye, or maybe they did but we were too oblivious to notice, when Bella started staying over with me a few nights ago. I guess having a twenty five year old familial foundation really goes a long way.

"Was that Shelly?" Bella asks once I eventually pull my lips away from hers.

I nod, "Yeah, just getting things in order for work. I can't believe it's almost time to start working again."

"These two weeks have gone so fast." She whimpers.

"And the weeks before I came home dragged along so slowly that I thought we were going backwards."

"We have to get used to it, I guess. With me being here and you being there."

"I know. But let's not talk about it now, okay? We only have a few hours until Emmett starts lighting off his fireworks and I want to make every moment count."

The night is young, and everyone is getting ready to head outside in my backyard around the bonfire. It's another tradition that started long before I can remember, but every year Emmett blows off his arsenal of fireworks as soon as the ball drops to the New Year. All I can think about as I hold Bella in my arms is how this coming year is shaping up to be the best year yet.

And at this given moment, I don't have details. Or answers. I don't know if she'll be with me in Chicago or if I'll be here with her in Forks, but one thing is for certain, and that nothing, not even distance, will keep me away from her.

There's a knock on the door an hour before midnight and I know by the obnoxiousness of the knock itself that it can only be Emmett.

"Are you two decent? I'm coming in."

To Emmett's luck, we are, and a few seconds later he's moonwalking into my room with a pair of gold 2017 glasses on his face and a hat that's about two sizes too big on his head.

"Here," he says, and tosses a pair of noisemakers and firecrackers at us on the bed. "It's almost time."

"Be right down," Bella laughs and stretches one more time before sliding out of my covers. Even though the fire is raging below us, it is still cold so we dress ourselves in layers and grab a blanket from the downstairs hallway before we head outside. The drinks are flowing and the atmosphere is hopeful and well spirited. I glance at everyone around me: my parents and The Swan's laughing from their patio chairs in front of the fire, Emmett busy setting up his firework display with Rose behind him yelling at his stupidity, Alice in a chair on the other side of the fire talking to some guy with short, curly blonde hair, I think she said his name is Jasper? I'm not sure but I smile because I recognize the look on their faces, a look that I never would have known if it wasn't for Pie Night. Now the look never leaves my face, or her face; it's a face that shows comfort. Trust. Loyalty.

Love.

We pull up some chairs and join everyone by the fire, all of us joining together in a toast for the year ahead. Emmett and Rose have set a wedding date for July, and Renee and my mother are already discussing things like invitations and etiquette and dresses and at some point, I black it all out and focus on the best gift that Christmas magic, hell 2016, could have ever brought me.

My Bella.

As if she can read my thoughts, she turns to me, the reflection from the flames dancing across her face. She found a pair of those glasses too, and she looks so ridiculous and happy and real so maybe that's the reason why I say it.

"You know I love you, right?"

It's not the way I thought I would ever tell her this but beneath the 2017 glasses, and Emmett and Rose arguing again about Emmett shooting his eye out like that dude from our pool league, and Alice and Jasper talking over there on that lawn chair like it's going out of style, I see my whole life and I see all of these crazy, stupid people I call family, too.

She nods and laughs, shaking her head slowly. "Only because I love you just as much, if not more."

I don't give her a chance to say anything else because I'm too busy kissing her lips and face, and I don't even care that our whole family is here to see it. She squeals and giggles loudly and I stop to catch my breath, pressing my forehead against hers. "I really don't think that's possible."

"Dick Clarke just started the countdown!" Emmett yells, all of us stopping our conversations to stand up and join him around his display.

"Dick Clarke's been dead for years, man." The guy I think is Jasper says, and he shoots me a look that automatically makes him my new best friend.

"Okay, Ryan Seacrest, whatever. 10! 9! 8…!"

I don't remember when Bella and I stop counting down with the rest of them, but I do know that she's the one I kiss at midnight. Forever she'll be my midnight kiss, my glass of cold milk in the middle of the night, my sunrise.

"You know they say that who you ring in the New Year with is who you'll spend it with," Bella says once we pull apart. Her arms are still draped around my neck and my arms are wrapped loosely around her waist. "That's why I've decided to come to Chicago with you."

"Oh, is that so?" I can barely contain my happiness, my voice threatening to give way to pure excitement. I'm about to shoot off into the sky higher and louder than Emmett's fucking fireworks.

Bella is nodding, "Afraid so. When I told you that you were stuck with me, I was serious."

"Well, there are some things to consider first." I reply.

"And what is that?" I can hear the smile in her voice.

"First. I snore, I've been told." I start to tick the reasons off on my fingers. She shakes her head and scoffs loudly, dismissing me with a wave of her hand.

"I played soccer for years when I was a kid. So when I kick you when your snoring keeps me up, it'll be a fierce kick. What's your second?"

"Second. You're going to have to fill a monthly quota of baking me some Pumpkin Cheesecakes. And it may or may not but definitely will involve you wearing one of those sexy aprons and nothing else."

After a small pause, Bella exhales loudly and looks at me.

"Okay, I've considered them." She says.

I look at her questioningly, one eyebrow raised high on my forehead. "And? Final consensus?"

"I bought one of those aprons for us the morning after Pie Night."

And with Emmett's fireworks high in the sky and loud in the night, I pull her to me and twirl her around in the air, our kisses light and full of air and most likely, a little bit of magic.

xxxx

 **A/N: Thank you, thank you, and thank you to all of my readers. My goal was to create a story that fills everyone with some Christmas Magic. It's such a special time of year and always brings such joy to me and my family. Pie Night has been around in my family since before I was born, (and I'm barely over thirty) and I love it even more than Thanksgiving myself. So many wonderful memories associated with Pie Night, and now that my family is all scattered around the US, we all share our pictures throughout the night of what we are all doing at each of our houses. My husband proposed at Pie Night in 2010, and now our two boys help make the pies and I can only hope this tradition carries on into their families. Most of the little memories throughout the story belong to me, as well. My aunt made the Willie Nelson cookie and it is the funniest thing I've ever seen, we do wear Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve and we do try to help with each other's gift wrapping over some wonderfully tasting wine. I know I'm forgetting some but this is what writing is all about. It invokes feelings in readers that no movie can ever rival. As sad as I am to see this story end, I think their story was told well and even though right now there are no plot bunnies brewing in my head, I can always wake up from a dream about a sparkling boy in a meadow.**

 **Thank you all.**


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